Ocean County Man Sentenced to 72 Months’ Imprisonment for Traveling Overseas to Engage in Sexual Conduct with a Minor

TRENTON, N.J. - An Ocean County man was sentenced to 72 months' imprisonment for traveling to Norway to engage in sexual conduct with a 14-year-old victim, Senior Counsel Philip W. Lamparello announced today.

Jacob Bauer, 29, of Toms River, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch in Trenton federal court on September 9, 2025, to a one-count Information charging him with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From December 1, 2023 through December 10, 2023, Bauer, then 27 years old, traveled from the United States to Norway to engage in sexual activity with a 14-year-old female in a hotel. After returning to the United States, Bauer communicated with the victim and bragged to others about his sexual activities, all while acknowledging the victim's age and status as a minor. After learning of Bauer's sexual activity, members of an online community that Bauer was active in "doxxed" him by publishing his information online.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Kirsch sentenced Bauer to 10 years of supervised release following Bauer's term of imprisonment and ordered forfeiture of Bauer's property used to commit the offense. Bauer is also subject to registration under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Senior Counsel Lamparello credited the special agents and task force officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy in Newark, with the investigation leading to the sentence. He also thanked the New Brunswick Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police Vincent Sabo, the Manchester Township Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police Antonio Ellis, the FBI Legal Attaché Office, U.S. Embassy, Copenhagen, Denmark, the FBI Legal Attaché Office, U.S. Embassy, Warsaw, Poland, the Jackson County, Georgia Sheriff's Office, INTERPOL, the Norwegian Politiet, Troms District, the Norwegian Politiet, NC3 KRIPOS, and the Poland Policja CBZC, Central Cybercrime Bureau for their assistance.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Garelick of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense counsel: Andrea G. Aldana, Esq., Federal Public Defenders.