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A former federal agent from Cahokia, Illinois was sentenced to 126 months for enticing and having sex with a minor in the Philippines.
According trial and sentencing documents, Joseph Albert Fuchs, III, a 55-year-old American citizen, met a 14-year-old girl while visiting the Philippines.
Fuchs engaged in sexual conversations with the minor using Facebook and discussed ways to evade detection of her age when he would return to the Philippines to engage in sexual acts with her at a hotel.
Fuchs returned to the Philippines in March 2019 and engaged in sexual acts with the 14-year-old minor. During this time, Fuchs was a special agent for the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
The postal service provided full cooperation into the investigation, and it was later revealed that Fuchs sent nearly $1,000 to the minor over a year-long period.
“Knowing the consequences in the U.S., Joseph Fuchs, III traveled thousands of miles to take advantage of a young, impressionable foreign girl, enticed her with financial payments and tried to conceal his involvement with her,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe in a press statement. “Federal agents must be held to a higher ethical standard, and this sentence reflects the severity of the committed crimes.”
Fuchs is required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release. He will be on supervised release for 7 years after he is released from the Bureau of Prisons and will be required to register as a sex offender. Additionally, Fuchs was ordered to pay a total of $18,000 in fines.
Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from the HSI Attaché Manila, the Philippine National Police and the Cahokia Police Department.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.