This 31-Year Old Ghanaian Has Been Arrested In US For Making Child Porn, Faces 30 Years In Jail

A former East Hartford man who has billed himself as “a technology entrepreneur, explorer, and visionary” admitted Monday in federal court that he made five videos of himself molesting a girl who was 6 to 8 years old and was in his “custody, care, or control.”

Saeed Mustapha Moussa, 31, a citizen of Ghana who lived on Columbus Circle when he was arrested last year, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a recommended prison sentence of 30 years under federal guidelines, according to his plea agreement.

ghanaian child porn saeed mustapha

He pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in New Haven to producing child pornography.After he is released from prison, Moussa faces five years to life of “supervised release,” which is similar to probation, under strict sex offender conditions, although he might well be deported.

He also faces a court order to pay financial restitution to the girl as well as a number of possible financial penalties when Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam sentences him, which is scheduled to occur Feb. 7 in the New Haven federal court. The financial penalties could include a $250,000 fine and a $50,000 assessment to the Child Pornography Victims Reserve.

Still pending against Moussa are state charges stemming from the same conduct, including four counts of first-degree sexual assault, each carrying 10 to 25 years in prison.

He has been in jail, held in lieu of $250,000 bond, since his arrest on the state charges in late October 2020.

Moussa’s LinkedIn page lists him as founder, CEO, and chief technology officer of Conquer Ordinary, which, in turn, bills itself as an “electronic commerce, food service and wholesale distribution company.”

The company’s listing with the Connecticut secretary of the state’s office lists a business address in Carrollton, Texas, but its web page last year listed its warehouse address as 150 Park Ave. in East Hartford.

The web page listed product offerings consisting mainly of non-perishable food items and non-alcoholic beverages.

East Hartford police learned of the accusations that Moussa possessed child pornography in September 2020, according to an affidavit by Special Agent Allison M. Haimila of the federal Homeland Security Department’s investigative arm.

The agent went on to recount the following: The woman who made the complaint told police she found a video of child pornography on Moussa’s cellphone and recognized the man partially shown in the video as Moussa. She said she confronted him about it and surreptitiously recorded their conversation on her cellphone.

Moussa at first denied having sex with a child but later said the girl was attracted to him and that “she engineered a lot of it.” He said the girl was 11 when the video was taken.

Police seized Moussa’s cellphone and other electronic equipment and identified the girl with the help of numerous non-pornographic photos of her preschool graduation found on the phone.

In an initial forensic interview, the girl provided only limited information, although she did identify Moussa as the other person in the video. She said at times that she was scared.

Investigators eventually obtained access to Moussa’s Google Photos account and found two pornographic videos involving the girl, both including shots of Moussa’s face.

The girl’s father subsequently told police that she had made additional disclosures to him. She underwent a second forensic interview, during which she identified herself in still photos from pornographic videos found on Moussa’s phone.

(H/T Journalinquirer)

SHARE

Related Stories