Why South Dakota billionaire T. Denny Sanford has never been charged in 2019 child porn case
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On Thursday, five search warrant affidavits were unsealed in a large document dump that revealed South Dakota billionaire banker T. Denny Sanford was believed to have obtained images depicting child pornography.
Despite the search warrant affidavits and tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, charges were never presented, according to Tony Mangan, the communications director for the South Dakota Office of the Attorney General.
Sanford is the richest person in the state, the founder of First Premier Bank and a nationally recognized philanthropist, along as the namesake behind Sanford Health, a regional nonprofit healthcare system based in Sioux Falls.
More: Search warrant affidavits into T. Denny Sanford have been unsealed. Here's what we know
“We took this matter seriously and trust law enforcement’s process with regard to their investigation, including their determination last year that there were no chargeable offenses," the hospital system released in a statement Thursday afternoon. "Sanford Health was not contacted by law enforcement or involved in the investigation.”
Mangan released the following statement in an email to the Argus Leader when asked Thursday why Sanford did not face indictment or charges, once the affidavits revealed 36 images of nude girls ages 8 to 15 were found on his phone. "In 2019, the Division of Criminal Investigation began investigating whether T. Denny Sanford had possessed child pornography. Search warrants were issued. That investigative file was then forwarded to the United States Attorney office in South Dakota, which forwarded it to the Department of Justice. The file was also forwarded to the authorities in Arizona and California. To date, none of those authorities have lodged charges against Sanford.
In 2022, after Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was impeached and suspended, his administration issued a statement that it did not find probable cause for criminal charges in the state of South Dakota," Mangan wrote.
More: What happened during the child porn investigation tied to T. Denny Sanford in South Dakota
On May 27, 2022, Brent Kempema, the Deputy Attorney General submitted a notice of completed investigation that "determined that there are no prosecutable offenses within the jurisdiction of the State of South Dakota."
Investigators also indicated they were unable to accurately locate the individual using an email account tied to the images on Sanford's phone during the dates police identified in the affidavits, because the account pinged in multiple locations across multiple states.
Sanford's lawyers argued he'd been hacked
Sanford's lawyers, in court documents filed in January 2022, also argued that Sanford's email accounts were hacked, which led to the child pornography investigation into the billionaire. At the time, Sanford was represented by Marty Jackley.
“A forensic examination of the very email account and relevant timeframe that is the subject of the search warrant in this case has uncovered the specific name of an individual other than the Implicated Individual having gained access to that very account,” Jackley wrote at the time. “Further exonerating evidence includes corroborating evidence of hacking into the Implicated Individual’s various accounts, unknown to the Implicated Individual until a forensic examination was performed that sought to uncover the truth in this matter.”
Jackley, who is currently the South Dakota Attorney General, no longer represents Sanford. Jackley was elected in November 2022.
Stacey Hegge, Sanford's current attorney, in a statement Thursday reiterated her client had been hacked.
"Mr. Sanford appreciates that after a thorough investigation the authorities concluded there exists no prosecutable offense. Here, because there is no prosecutable case or further action to be taken, the court records being released contain only allegations," Hegge wrote. "These preliminary allegations were provided to law enforcement prior to law enforcement’s exhaustive investigation and its realization that various individuals had documented access to the electronic devices at issue, including signs of hacking. While some claim releasing affidavits that reiterate these allegations constitute transparency, releasing preliminary allegations made prior to completing the full investigation only misinforms people and obscures the investigation’s conclusions that no prosecutable offense occurred.”
What does the law say?
By South Dakota law, a person is guilty of possessing, manufacturing or distributing child pornography, a Class 4 felony, if the person:
Creates any visual depiction of a minor engaging in a prohibited sexual act, or in the simulation of such an act;
Causes or knowingly permits the creation of any visual depiction of a minor engaged in a prohibited sexual act, or in the simulation of such an act; or
Knowingly possesses, distributes, or otherwise disseminates any visual depiction of a minor engaging in a prohibited sexual act, or in the simulation of such an act.
Public liaisons for the U.S. Attorney's Office District of South Dakota and the Homeland Security Investigations – St. Paul, which oversees sub-offices in the state and office handles various federal online-related sex crimes, could not be reached for comment.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Why South Dakota AG's office didn't charge Sanford with child pornography
