Evergreen Reporter

David Matthew Frahm, a former teacher at Marianas High School, has been sentenced to 156 months in federal prison for child exploitation crimes. The U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands handed down the sentence on November 13, 2024. Frahm, aged 47 and originally from Iowa, was convicted of possession of child pornography and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

Frahm will also serve five years of supervised release following his prison term and must pay a $200 mandatory assessment fee. A hearing regarding restitution is scheduled for December 19, 2024.

Under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, Frahm must register as a sex offender in every jurisdiction where he resides, works, or studies after his release.

Frahm pleaded guilty to possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct found on a laptop he abandoned before fleeing Saipan in March 2019. The computer contained images linked to a Ukrainian company previously shut down for child exploitation.

After leaving the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Frahm lived illegally in Malaysia for four years. In February 2024, he violated U.S. law by recording an eleven-year-old child with his mobile phone without consent. He was detained with assistance from Royal Malaysian Police after friends of the victim alerted U.S. authorities.

Upon being escorted back to Saipan by the FBI on June 8, 2024, Frahm was formally arrested upon arrival on U.S. soil.

Following sentencing, charges related to an alleged attempt to photograph children using a toilet were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

"Frahm preyed on children in the far corners of the Indo-Pacific region," stated United States Attorney Shawn N. Anderson. "I applaud the work of the FBI in bringing him to justice."

"This sentence sends a clear message that crimes against children will not be tolerated," said FBI Special Agent Steven Merrill.

The investigation involved collaboration between multiple agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), CNMI Department of Public Safety, and Royal Malaysian Police.

Assistant United States Attorney Eric O’Malley prosecuted this case under Project Safe Childhood (PSC), an initiative launched by the Department of Justice aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse since May 2006.