Saipan, CNMI – SHAWN N. ANDERSON, United States Attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, announces that on November 13, 2024, David Matthew Frahm, age 47, from Iowa, was sentenced to 156 months imprisonment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (NMI) for Possession of Child Pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(5) (B) and (b)(2) and Engaging in Illicit Sexual Conduct in Foreign Places, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2423(c) and (f). The Court also ordered Frahm to serve an additional five years of supervised release and pay a $200 mandatory assessment fee. The Court deferred a hearing on restitution until December 19, 2024.
As a convicted sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Frahm will be required to register in every jurisdiction where he resides, works, and goes to school upon release from prison.
Frahm pled guilty to knowingly possessing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, discovered during forensic analysis of a laptop computer. He abandoned the computer in March 2019 before his flight from Saipan. The public school-issued computer contained a digital picture from a defunct Ukrainian company that produced child pornography. The company operated under the guise of an artistic modelling studio but was shut down approximately two decades ago for child exploitation.
Shortly after local and federal law enforcement began investigating Frahm for this charge and other conduct, he fled from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to Malaysia where he lived illegally for four years. While in Malaysia, Frahm violated a law designed to punish U.S. citizens who commit sex crimes while traveling or residing abroad. He did so in February 2024 by using his mobile phone to surreptitiously record an eleven-year-old child after exiting a shower. Friends of the victim contacted U.S. authorities, and with assistance from the Royal Malaysian Police, Frahm was detained pursuant to a warrant issued by the District Court for the NMI. He was then escorted by the FBI back to Saipan. On June 8, 2024, federal authorities formally arrested him after landing on U.S. soil.
After sentencing, the Court granted the Government’s motion to dismiss a third count relating to Frahm’s alleged attempt to take pictures of children using a toilet in March 2019, a condition of the plea agreement.
“Frahm preyed on children in the far corners of the Indo-Pacific region,” stated United States Attorney Anderson. “I applaud the work of the FBI in bringing him to justice. This case demonstrates what multi-national partnerships can do to promote public safety. Those who travel outside the United States to exploit children will be held accountable.”
“This sentence sends a clear message that crimes against children will not be tolerated, and that our collective efforts to promote public safety in Hawaii, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands remains steadfast,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven Merrill. “We will hold perpetrators accountable for their heinous actions especially when they were entrusted by students and parents alike to serve as role models and not a sexual predator.”
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of CNMI Department of Public Safety and Royal Malaysian Police.
Assistant United States Attorney Eric O’Malley prosecuted the case in the District of the Northern Mariana Islands.
This was a Project Safe Childhood (PSC) case, 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, PSC 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 PSC, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.
