Folsom Man Arrested, Charged with Receiving Child Sexual Abuse Material

A Folsom man, Paul Richards, 51, was arrested today after a federal grand jury indicted him for receiving child sexual abuse material, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

According to court documents, from December 2023 through April 2025, Richards used the peer-to-peer file sharing program BitTorrent to receive images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Harman is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Richards faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the "resources" tab for information about internet safety education.