‘Brave’ Michigan Teen Stopped Global Sex Exploitation Suspect: Feds

WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI — An Ontario man federal prosecutors say sexually exploited teenage girls from around the world, including at least one in West Bloomfield Township, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement.

Antonio P. Fontana, 59, who pleaded guilty to child pornography, extortion and related charges in January, “used the internet to exploit and extort children in the most humiliating way,” McQuade said, noting the investigation turned up victims in Finland, England and elsewhere in the United States.

Fontana’s federal court conviction stems from an investigation involving two teens from the Eastern District of Michigan. In the first, Fontana posed as a 16-year-old boy on a video chat website beginning in October 2013 and “coerced and enticed” a 15-year-old girl into performing various sexual acts for him in front of a webcam on an almost daily basis, according to the news release.

He recorded most, if not all, of the sexual acts and threatened to share them with her family and friends if she cut off contact, which she attempted in December 2013, according to the release.

Fontana carried through with his threats and sent the sexually explicit images to the victim’s mother and email contacts, including her school and church, according to court records.

He engaged in similar conduct with a 14-year-old in November and December 2014, prosecutors said.

One of the victims reported him to police.

“The bravery of the child in this case to come forward and report the perpetrator's conduct certainly prevented other children from being exploited this way,” McQuade said.

David P. Gelios, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office, said Fontana “hid behind the anonymity of the internet to target and sexually exploit children in the most reprehensible of ways.”

“This investigation proves the reach of the FBI, along with its local, state and federal partners, is a long one; in this case even across international borders,” Gelios said in the news release. “The protection of our children from depraved predators and online threats will remain a priority as long as there are those who would sexually exploit our children.”

West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Michael Patton said the entire West Bloomfield community is grateful for the cooperation of local, federal and international law enforcement partners that led to the indictment.

“Predators that target children via the Internet are not limited by state or national jurisdictional boundaries,” he said.

Fontana was extradited to the United States from Canada last year. McQuade praised the work of the special agents of the FBI, the officers from the West Bloomfield Police Department and the detectives from the major crime unit of the Durham Regional Police Service, Ontario, Canada.

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