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United States Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut
03/12/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/12/2026 13:45
Brazilian National Unlawfully Residing in U.S. Charged with Child Exploitation Offense
David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New England, today announced that MAX MOTA PINHO, 45, a citizen of Brazil residing in Stamford, has been charged by federal criminal complaint with possession of child pornography.
As alleged in court documents, a cloud-based storage company that provides services for wireless customers made multiple CyberTipline reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ("NCMEC") that a user, subsequently identified as Pinho, had videos and images of child sexual abuse stored on the account. Subsequent investigation confirmed that child sex abuse material was stored on Pinho's account.
Pinho was arrested yesterday at his Stamford residence. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Dave Vatti in Bridgeport and was released on a $50,000 bond. Pinho, who overstayed a tourist visa issued in 2003, was then taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
Possession of child pornography carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.
U.S. Attorney Sullivan stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This matter is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Stamford Police Department, the Watertown Police Department, and the Westport Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel P. Gordon.
This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
To report cases of child exploitation, please visit https://www.cybertipline.comLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..
United States Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut published this content on March 12, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 12, 2026 at 19:45 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]