Newly unsealed documents show investigators in South Dakota 4 years ago found images of nude underage girls in an email account linked to billionaire philanthropist T-Denny Sanford, but that it could have been hacked.
Police in a 2019 investigation were unable to prove who sent the images or where that person was at the time. The result was no charges against Sanford with state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg saying the investigation found no prosecutable offenses within the state
The search warrants and affidavits for those warrants were sealed, but the Sioux Falls Argus Leader and ProPublica went to court and eventually won rulings that both were public documents under South Dakota’s open records law.
The affidavits just released show a special agent with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation reported several images of nude underage girls were sent via email on one of Sanford’s accounts over 3 days in May and June 2019.
The agent wrote that he was unable to determine the location of the individual accessing and using the email account on those days, but did find IP addresses in the South Dakota, Arizona, and California areas where Sanford had homes.
The case information was eventually sent to the U-S Justice Department and authorities in the other two states, but no charges were ever filed at the federal level or in the 2 other states.
Sanford’s attorney, who fought to keep the records sealed, says the newly released documents contain only allegations and that “various individuals had documented access to the electronic devices at issue, including signs of hacking.”
Sanford is the founder of First Premier Bank in South Dakota and the state’s richest man, giving billions to hospitals, universities and charities.