NYC sex offender bought live child porn videos from Philippines: feds
A sex offender from Queens ordered custom-made child pornography from the Philippines, telling a woman on the other side of a video call exactly what he wanted done to her underage “daughter,” federal prosecutors allege.
Federal authorities caught wind of Daniel Galanter, 55, as part of a years-long investigation into the underground child sex webcam industry in the Philippines, when his name showed up in one of the alleged conspirators’ Skype logs, according to court documents.
Galanter, who also goes by the last name Galantter, was free on parole in a subway sex abuse case for just three months when he started reaching out to the Skype user, identified in court papers as “AnaMarie53,” in September 2018, the feds allege.
He would share more than 3,500 messages with the Skype user between then and May 2022, and would order “bespoke” videos and photos of young girls being abused, according to federal authorities.
Galanter, who’s now living in the Bronx, resided in Queens when he committed the alleged offenses, law enforcement sources said.
The scenarios he asked for were horrific, and involved the graphic sexual assault of girls between 7 and 11 years old, federal prosecutors allege.
He also demanded live shows, telling the Skype user “I told you I want show not vid” after receiving a recorded video in August 2020, the feds allege.
“The defendant specifically took pleasure in instructing (the Skype user) on how to abuse the child victims,” Brooklyn Assistant U.S. Attorney Elias Laris wrote on Oct. 5.
His arrest stems from a long-term investigation called “Operation Corregidor,” run out of the Portland, Me. office of federal Homeland Securities Investigations. It was lauded in 2019 by the Justice Department for rescuing more than 100 children from child sex trafficking operations.
“These investigations are conducted mainly through undercover communications used to infiltrate closed communities of offenders,” wrote HSI Special Agent Martin Conley in his search warrant affidavit for AnaMarie053’s account. “This growing child abuse industry involves child traffickers in the Philippines who collect viewership fees from vetted customers worldwide.
“Paying customers are allowed to direct the abuser/child trafficker to perform acts of sexual abuse on minor children in real time during a private webcam interactions.”
Galanter made little effort to hide his identity —his Skype user name was “Daniel Galanter,” he paid with a Western Union transaction linked to his bank account, and in one case, he sent the Skype user a screengrab of the video chat with his face visible, Laris wrote.
Laris described him as a “serial predator,” pointing to his arrest in 2015 for physically overpowering and sexually abusing a 22-year-old girl in a Manhattan subway station.
“Women won’t date me and I’m sexually repressed,” he told a detective after his arrest, according to court documents, explaining, “I don’t like going to prostitutes or masturbating and women won’t date me.”
Galanter was sentenced to two years in prison in 2017, and is a registered sex offender, public records show.
Galanter was arrested last week on a federal complaint, and indicted Wednesday on charges of sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child pornography. He could face 15 to 40 years in federal prison if convicted.
He remains held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. His lawyer, James Darrow of the Federal Defenders, declined comment.
