COLUMBIA — A Columbia man faces federal charges after traveling to Louisiana to meet a 15-year-old girl he met online, only to find out the girl was an undercover police detective, according to the office of Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Akshaya Swain, 29, began communicating online with a detective he thought was a girl while in Missouri late last month, according to a news release from Letten’s office. Last week, while in New Orleans for a seminar, he attempted to meet with the girl for sex in Kenner, La., the release states.
Swain was arrested on suspicion of using a facility of Interstate Commerce — computer and cell phone — to entice a minor for unlawful sexual activity.
An Akshaya Swain is listed as an MU physics graduate student in the MU directory.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore Jr. remanded Swain to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison, followed by up to a lifetime term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.
The Kenner Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.