A federal grand jury in Los Angeles Wednesday indicted a 69-year-old Montrose man accused of traveling to Thailand to have sex with boys as young as 14.
Paul Alan Shapiro is charged with one count each of illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and sex trafficking of a minor, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors allege that in February 2010, Shapiro flew from Los Angeles to Thailand, where he paid underage boys small amounts of local currency in order to engage in various sex acts with them.
Shapiro also took photographs of himself engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the boys, the indictment alleges.
“Child predators cannot flee the United States in the hope of having a safe haven for their criminal conduct,” said Eileen M. Decker, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. “To protect the most vulnerable among us, my office will pursue Americans who seek to exploit children in other countries.”
According to the Pattaya Mail, a Thai newspaper, Shapiro was arrested in Thailand in 2012 after allegedly being caught in the midst of a lewd act with a 13-year-old boy in a mall restroom.
He told investigators he’d purchased the services of the boy for 300 baht — about $8.50, the Pattaya Mail reported at the time.
Shapiro received a royal pardon in Thailand last year so that he could be deported back to the United States to face charges, according to the newspaper.
— Wire reports