Newly obtained affidavits shed light on the child pornography investigation involving T. Denny Sanford and appear to validate claims that accounts associated with the esteemed billionaire philanthropist were targeted by multiple hacking and phishing endeavors.
The court documents also indicate a connection between a pornographic image under scrutiny and a property that was registered to Sanford.
Released last week, the documents follow the public release of search warrants a month ago, which unveiled the discovery of child pornography images within an email account linked to Sanford.
The recently disclosed information delves into a segment of the investigation concerning six images transmitted on June 27, 2019. According to the affidavit, one IP address was traced back to Midco, with a potential geolocation in Sioux Falls.
Additionally, other IP addresses were linked to possible locations in Oregon, Arizona, and California. At the time, Sanford possessed residences in Sioux Falls, Scottsdale (Arizona), and La Jolla (California).
On that same day, a cell phone number connected to Sanford registered pings from two cell phone towers in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Oglala, Nebraska, separated by a distance of 250 miles. Subsequently, the device pinged a tower in California later in the afternoon.
An official from the Verizon Wireless Security Assistance Team informed investigators that the cell tower indexes for that account were manually attached. They also revealed that one tower data entry was missing, which would have indicated the device’s presence in Sioux Falls.
The documents also include exhibits submitted by Sanford’s legal team at the time, illustrating instances where his email account was targeted by phishing attempts. The emails, dated 2016, 2018, and 2019, featured requests for money transfers and made claims of a robbery in Manila, Philippines.
Moreover, the affidavits furnish fresh details concerning one of the child pornography images. A representative from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office disclosed that the metadata of one image contained a GPS tag indicating it was captured at the address of a California property registered in Sanford’s name during that period. Investigators additionally observed several noticeable irregularities in the image, suggesting it had been captured from another screen.
South Dakota authorities have previously stated that Sanford will not face child pornography charges in the state based on the evidence gathered during the investigation. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether Sanford is being investigated or could face charges in other states or jurisdictions.
The Arizona Attorney General’s Office confirmed last month that there is no active or closed case pertaining to Sanford.