Today, United States District Judge Jill A. Otake sentenced Kenneth Lim, 33, of Honolulu, to seven and a half years of imprisonment and 15 years of supervised release for transportation of child pornography. Lim previously pleaded guilty to the child pornography offense on March 2, 2022.
According to documents and information presented in court, Lim admitted that, on January 6, 2019, he arrived at the Honolulu International Airport aboard a flight from Japan with thousands of sexually explicit images and videos of minor girls ranging in age from approximately six to 13 years old stored on his electronic devices. After another flight to Honolulu in December 2019, law enforcement caught Lim at the airport with additional images of child pornography on his electronic devices. Further, in his plea agreement, Lim admitted that he told federal agents he previously had been arrested in Japan in 2016, for conduct related to his online contact with over one hundred minor girls around the ages of 10 to 12 years old. He used social media applications to engage these minors and admitted to having exchanged nude images with some of them.
“Lim’s conduct demonstrates the way predators utilize social media to exploit children, as well as the fact they store the pornographic images of their victims on their electronic media,” said U.S. Attorney Clare E. Connors. “The law provides substantial prison terms for sexual exploitation of children, and it was appropriate that Lim received one in this case.”
“Child sex abuse is one of the most serious crimes HSI investigates,” said John F. Tobon, Special Agent in Charge, HSI Honolulu. “HSI is proud to work closely with our law enforcement partners to protect communities from egregious repeat offenders like Lim.”
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 U.S. Attorney’s 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 www.justice.gov/psc.
Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation that resulted in the charge. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Olson and Rebecca A. Perlmutter prosecuted the case.