United States of America v. Renee Hoberman, a/k/a “Rina”

Central Islip, New York, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Renee Hoberman, age 38, of Plainview, New York, used encrypted social media messaging applications to upload, receive, and trade digital videos and images depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including several videos depicting infants six months to one year of age, frantically screaming while being physically restrained and raped by adult males. The defendant also engaged in multiple online “chats” concerning child sexual molestation. In these chats, the defendant, posing as the father of several minor children, claimed to have sex with the children and punish them by getting naked, stripping the children naked, and spanking them while the other children watched. The defendant invited another user to visit “his” family in New York to spank and sexually abuse the children. In addition, the defendant described sexually abusing “his” children and their friends, and then uploaded and sent two videos containing child sexual abuse material, claiming that these videos depicted the defendant’s own children.

During the same time period that Hoberman was distributing child sexual abuse material online, she was also working as a mental health counselor for children and adolescents. The defendant was arrested on October 23, 2024, and pleaded guilty on June 18, 2025. She has been incarcerated since her arrest.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices, 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 https://www.justice.gov/psc.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Long Island Criminal Section. Assistant United States Attorney Kaitlin McTague is in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Janelle Robinson.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment for receipt and distribution of child pornography.