ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY PRESS RELEASE
January 23, 2015
Case # 15HF0093
SANTA ANA – Law enforcement is seeking the public’s help identifying potential additional victims of a chief executive officer of a publicly traded company located in Irvine charged with sexually assaulting minors and possessing child pornography. Qayed Murtaza Shareef, 39, Aliso Viejo, the founder and CEO of Adaptive Media, was charged today with 30 felony counts of lewd acts with a child under 14, one felony count of using a minor for sex acts, one felony count of distributing pornography to a minor, one felony count of possession or control of child pornography, with a sentencing enhancement for substantial sexual conduct with a child under 14 years old and committing lewd acts upon multiple victims. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 752 years to life in state prison. He is being held on $2 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon, Jan. 23, 2015, in Department CJ-1, Central Jail, Santa Ana. The time is to be determined.
On multiple occasions between Dec. 25, 2013, and Dec. 29, 2013, Shareef is accused of contacting 10-year-old John Doe #1 and 9-year-old John Doe #2 using an online application called Tango. The defendant is accused of connecting to the program using a fake name of Jeremy Stevens.
The defendant is accused of having sexually explicit conversations with the victims through the application. He is then accused of convincing and directing John Doe #1 and John Doe #2, who live in Virginia, to commit sex acts with each other and to record photos and videos of the sex acts using their ASUS tablet. Shareef is accused of directing the victims to send the photos and videos of themselves to the defendant’s Tango account.
Between Dec. 25, 2013, and Dec. 29, 2013, the defendant is accused of recording sex acts performed on himself and sending it to the victims along with adult pornography.
The defendant did not have physical contact with the victims but California Penal Code section 288 states that lewd and lascivious acts upon a child is committed when a defendant willfully causes a child to touch the child’s own body or the body of another with the intent of arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual desires of the defendant or the child.
On Dec. 30, 2013, the mother of one of the victims found the videos on the child’s tablet device and reported the crime to her local law enforcement agency in Virginia.
On Jan. 21, 2015, Shareef was arrested at his residence by members of the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force (OCCETF), including investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), and the Newport Beach Police Department (NBPD).
OCCETF is comprised of members from ICE HSI; OCSD; FBI; United States Postal Inspection Service; Huntington Beach Police Department; and NBPD. OCCETF investigates Internet-related crimes against children and crimes involving the possession, production and distribution of child pornography.
The investigation in this case is ongoing. Anyone with additional information or who believes they have been a victim is encouraged to contact OCSD Sgt. Wade Walsviek at (714) 647-7418 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Kelly Core at (714) 347-8794.
Deputy District Attorney Vanessa Woods of the Sexual Assault Unit is prosecuting this case.
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TONY RACKAUCKAS, District Attorney
Susan Kang Schroeder, Chief of Staff
Office: 714-347-8408
Cell: 714-292-2718
