A Manhattan teacher allegedly admitted to an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent that he posed as a 13-year-old girl who “prefers” underage girls and told her he had sex “once with a 10th grader.” degree,” according to court documents.
Identified as Kostas Fekkas, 34, he was a teacher at a Manhattan charter school at the time of his arrest on September 14, and had also worked at other schools in the Bronx and neighboring suburban Westchester County, federal prosecutors said.
Detectives allegedly found graphic sexual messages and child pornography from a 12-year-old girl hidden in an app designed to look like a calculator, prompting the three-month undercover mission in which he allegedly admitted to being a teacher in a message exchange. .
When “Riley,” the undercover HSI officer, said, “I’m in eighth grade,” the guy responded, “Great. Normally, I stop at ninth grade, but you are incredibly beautiful,” the criminal complaint states.
“Kostas Fekkas’s alleged conduct is despicable,” Damian Williams, federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “As a teacher, Fekkas was entrusted with the care and well-being of children, whom he, in turn, allegedly attempted to victimize.”
Additionally, officials discovered explicit content in an app called “HideU,” which allows a customer to hide files on a cell phone and is disguised as a working calculator, court documents say.
Fekkas introduced himself as “CJ Justice,” a 30-year-old man who teaches high school physics on the Kik app, which was registered at the email address Kfekkas@mercy.edu., according to court documents.
He allegedly sent “Riley” photos, which were included in the report, that matched his publicly available image on the anonymous Manhattan high school website.
Included in the criminal complaint are the exchange of messages between the teacher and the undercover officer, Fox News reported.
Apparently, he pressured who he believed to be a 13-year-old minor to take nude photos. She sent a photo of her face and he allegedly said, “Like I make out with you all day lol (sic).”
When the officer posing as “Riley” said he had sent a photo of her face the day before, Fekkas allegedly said he wanted “her to be super comfortable before you show me more of your face and before I can see your face.” body”.
Between Dec. 20 and 25 of last year, he allegedly sent photographs of his member to “Riley” and asked her if she would engage in any sexual conduct with him, the criminal complaint says, including that the exchanges became more graphic each time.
In March, the police executed a search warrant on Fekkas’s cell phone, where they found the app, which allegedly contained, among other things, a sexually explicit video of a girl, a photo of the same minor with her shirt lifted and another image of the infant naked from head to knees.
Detectives compared the victim’s bracelet seen in the images to the username of a Snapchat account that Fekkas was allegedly chatting with, according to the complaint.
Federal agents and prosecutors believe there are more victims.
Fekkas is being charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, which carries a mandatory sentence of five to 20 years for each count, if convicted, as well as attempted transfer of obscene material, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
HSI asked that anyone who may have been a victim of Fekkas or provide more information about this case should call the tip line at 1-866-DHS-2423.
From outside the United States and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.
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