Queens man used cryptocurrency to buy child porn: prosecutors

A Queens man has been caught buying child porn with cryptocurrency, prosecutors said Saturday.

Andre Hyman was arrested Friday following a joint investigation by the Manhattan and Queens district attorney offices.

Hyman, 27, was flagged in a larger international child porn investigation where people were selling explicit photos and videos through bitcoin addresses, authorities said.

One website advertised access to child porn in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Investigators tracking the purchases, which were made through a mobile payment company called Square Inc., learned that Hyman had bought and downloaded multiple images of pre-pubescent girls on his home computer in Jamaica, Queens, prosecutors said.

“This case should serve as a warning to all those who think they can safely hide behind their digital wallets to purchase and promote materials depicting the sexual abuse of children,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Saturday. “We will use all tools at our disposal, including tracing illegal activity through the digital marketplace, to investigate and prosecute these abhorrent actions.”

Hyman was arrested at his home as investigators conducted a search warrant and recovered the child pornography, including an image of a 4-year-old girl engaging in a sex act, prosecutors said. Members of the Queens DA detective squad also recovered material to make fraudulent checks.

He confessed to buying the child porn in May and making the fake checks.

Hyman was charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child, forgery and possessing a forged instrument.

“It’s still ongoing so we really don’t know nothing,” Hyman’s father told the Daily News Saturday. “I feel like he’s innocent but we will see what happens throughout the case.

“Right now (we’re) just dealing with the situation as it comes,” he said.

Hyman was released without bail following a brief arraignment Friday. None of the charges were bail eligible, according to court records. He faces up to seven years in prison on the porn charges alone, if convicted.