Philip Taylor Sobash, 36, of Austin, Texas, was sentenced to serve 30 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for sexually exploiting minors.
“Philip Sobash enticed seven minors to produce and send him child sexual abuse material, and then distributed five of those minors’ sexually explicit images online,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant took advantage of teenage girls. His depravity caused them long-lasting psychological trauma. The Department will pursue cases just like this to protect children from sexual exploitation.”
“Protecting children from sexual predators is among the highest priorities of our office and the Department of Justice,” said U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek for the Middle District of Tennessee. “Holding Sobash accountable for all of his offenses against all his victims is vitally important to the safety of children in our community and across the country.”
“The FBI’s commitment to protecting children from abuse knows no bounds,” said Assistant Director Heith Janke of the FBI’s Criminal Division. “We work relentlessly with our partners to hold perpetrators of the sexual exploitation of minors to account, and others engaging in criminal activity targeting the vulnerable should take today’s sentencing as a warning that they too will be forced to face the consequences of their actions.”
According to court documents, between October 2018 and May 2019, Sobash, then a practicing physician, engaged in an online sexually explicit relationship with Minor Victim 1, who resided in the Middle District of Tennessee. This online relationship began after they connected on a dating website that facilitates “sugar daddy” relationships. After their communications moved to text message, Minor Victim 1 informed Sobash that she was 17 years old and sent him a photo of her driver’s license, which confirmed her age.
Sobash requested that Minor Victim 1 produce and send him sexually explicit images of herself and provided her thousands of dollars in cash and gifts to entice her to do so. Over the course of more than seven months, Sobash received hundreds of sexually explicit photos and videos of Minor Victim 1, most of which constituted child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In addition to sexually exploiting Minor Victim 1, Sobash admitted to sexually exploiting six other minors, aged 16 and 17, between 2017 and 2020. At Sobash’s direction, Minor Victims 2 through 7 created CSAM, which they sent to him. Sobash distributed CSAM depicting Minor Victims 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, resulting in those victims’ images being sold online under their names.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit investigated the case with the assistance of FBI Nashville, Clarksville Resident Agency, and the U.S. Secret Service.
Trial Attorney Adam Braskich of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Monica R. Morrison for the Middle District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
