Orange County man sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for sexually abusing minors following ICE investigation

SANTA ANA, Calif. – An Orange County man was sentenced Jan. 21, 2021, to 292 months in federal prison for travelling out of state to sexually abuse minors – including a 6-year-old girl – and for inducing minors to send him sexually explicit videos of themselves.

As the result of a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, Daniel Seibert, 29, of Lake Forest, pleaded guilty in March 2020 to a three-count information charging him with production of child pornography, traveling to engage in illicit sex and using a facility of commerce to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

In the spring of 2019, Seibert traveled from California to Michigan to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a victim who was 6 years old. The victim’s mother attempted to render the child unconscious by using over-the-counter drugs before having Seibert engage in sex acts with the victim. Images later recovered during a search executed by HSI depicted his abuse of the victim. The victim’s mother is facing multiple child sexual abuse charges in Oregon state court.

Seibert traveled to Utah in December 2018 and again in May 2019 to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a 14-year-old victim that he had met on the internet, he admitted in a plea agreement.

One victim recounted that Seibert asked her to send sexually explicit material, knowing she was a minor. She did so, and HSI special agents later found in Seibert’s possession about 160 images and eight videos of child exploitation material of the victim.

This case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California’s Santa Ana Office.