KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A joint Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Knoxville investigation has led to the sentencing of a former Knox County schoolteacher to 20 years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of production of child sexual abuse material and one count of attempted production of child sexual abuse material.
Zachariah Luaie Albaba, 33, of Rocky Top, was also ordered to supervised release for his lifetime and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions during his supervised release.
According to the filed plea agreement, on Sept. 11, 2022, in two separate communications in the Eastern District of Tennessee, Albaba contacted two minor boys in different locations via Omegle, an internet app that provides real-time video communications. The real-time video communications with the two boys took place on Albaba’s cellphone. In each video, Albaba appears in the right-hand corner of the video requesting a male child to engage in sexual conduct and Albaba promises he will do likewise when the child is finished. One video shows a child engaging in sexual conduct; the other video does not. Neither boy has been identified.
HSI Nashville Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee Francis M. Hamilton III and U.S. Secret Service Knoxville and Kentucky acting Resident Agent in Charge Lesley Cochran made the announcement.
The criminal indictment was the result of an investigation by the HSI, the U.S. Secret Service, the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, Tennessee Internet Crimes Against Children, the Kentucky Office of Attorney General the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and the Rocky Top Police Department.
About HSI
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel and finance move. HSI’s workforce consists of over 10,000 employees, assigned to 235 offices within the United States and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI's international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.