Michael Carey Clemans, 55, was indicted on four counts related to conspiracy to produce child porn, the Eastern District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
According to court documents, Clemans worked with a woman in the Philippines starting in June 2014 to produce the sexually explicit photos of children. At the time, Clemans lived in Bangkok, where he worked as an airline pilot.
When he moved back to Sacramento in April, Clemans allegedly continued to work with the woman by working out various strategies to find young girls to engage in sexually explicit actions, court documents said.
Clemans allegedly gave the woman thousands of dollars so she could buy photo equipment and set up the photo shoots with the girls, according to court documents. During some conversations, Clemans expressed “his desire to have sex with girls as young as 8 years old.”
Court documents show Clemans paid the guardians of the Filipino children so he could get temporary custody of the kids and produce child pornography.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Clemans was arrested in July. (U.S. Customs agents, on a tip Clemans may be possessing child pornography, also detained him last April after flew into San Francisco International Airport from Tokyo. Agents found 18 images on his iPad and he was arrested immediately.) If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.