Canadian World Bank employee jailed in sickening child pornography probe
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A Canadian employee of the World Bank in Washington has been sent to a U.S. prison for four years after he was busted for distributing twisted child pornography involving babies.
Matthew Norman Ballek, 32, of Saskatchewan, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to 46 months in federal prison.
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Ballek pleaded guilty in October in the District of Columbia to a criminal information charging him with one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, in January 2024, a member of a joint FBI and Washington police Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force was monitoring an online dating application in an undercover capacity.
But the dating app was a ruse and was frequently used by pedophiles seeking sex with children and related materials. Ballek — a financial risk assessor at the World Bank — did not weigh the risk to himself.
The feds say he contacted the undercover cop, believing he was communicating with a pervert, and expressed an interest in child pornography. As a goodwill gesture, Ballek sent the undercover agent three video files via an encrypted messaging application.
The vile videos depicted adult males raping a toddler and prepubescent boys. Ballek had also expressed an interest to the cop in going overseas to sexually abuse children, admitting he had done it previously.
Ballek was arrested in D.C. on February 7, 2024. The FBI seized and forensically examined Ballek’s phone, which contained 10 unique videos and at least 21 unique still images of child pornography.
Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered Ballek to serve six years of supervised release on completion of his prison sentence and to register as a sex offender for 15 years. He may also be subject to deportation proceedings and other adverse immigration consequences.
He had faced up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Upon completion of his sentence, Ballek will be deported to Canada.
Originally from Outlook, Saskatchewan, Ballek previously worked for the Bank of Canada.
This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
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