Accused child predator pretended to be ‘vigilante’ combating child porn ring, feds say

A Texas man accused of sexually assaulting women and preying on children has been sentenced to nearly three decades in prison, according to federal officials.

Nam Vu Bui, a 39-year-old Houston man, pleaded guilty Aug. 21 to producing child pornography but was recently sentenced by a federal judge to more than 27 years behind bars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said in a Dec. 13 news release.

Though Bui is a Texas resident, authorities began investigating him in Vermont, where he was “pretending to be a medical student conducting cancer research” as a cover to sexually assault women, officials said.

The reported assault happened at Middlebury College, an elite liberal arts school in Vermont, VTDigger.com reported.

Bui convinced several victims to meet with him inside their college dorm rooms, where he carried out “gynecological exams,” officials said. One of the women, who had been told to wear a blindfold, lifted the covering during the exam and saw that Bui was trying to record her.

An investigation was launched, and authorities learned that Bui’s medical student persona was just the latest ploy in a long line of abuse and assault, according to officials. Court records show that Bui was exploiting victims as early as 2009.

McClatchy News reached out to an attorney listed for Bui but did not immediately receive a response.

In addition to targeting his girlfriend’s friends, federal officials say Bui also “infiltrated” her family — and other Vietnamese immigrant families — in order to get close to their kids. He told these families he could serve as a tutor for their female children, but during their sessions, according to officials, Bui raped them and recorded his crimes.

Though Bui found many of his victims by exploiting personal connections, he was as much a danger online, according to officials.

Using fake email accounts, Bui would pretend to be an attorney, or a friend of a victim, officials said. Other times, he took on the guise of a vigilante who was “combatting a child pornography ring … made up of law enforcement officers.”

And after gaining the trust of his victims, Bui would trick them into making child pornography of themselves, according to officials.

Bui has been ordered to pay $19,680 in restitution to his victims and will face 10 years of supervised release at the end of his prison term, the release said.

“The bravery shown by the victims in this case is to be commended,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in the release. “They spoke up against evil, rose above the years of abuse perpetrated on them and have given true meaning to the word survivor. It is my hope that more victims, hearing about these brave young women, will speak out against their abusers.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Accused child predator pretended to be ‘vigilante’ combating child porn ring, feds say."