A Brooklyn math teacher — and reportedly two-time Jeopardy winner — posed as a teenager and enticed students to send him nude photos and videos on social media, prosecutors said Thursday.
Winston Nguyen, 37, of Harlem, was charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to minors, among other charges in a predatory scheme that spanned nearly two years.
While working at posh Brooklyn Heights private school Saint Ann’s School, Nguyen used Snapchat to strike up conversations in 11 different incidents with children starting in October 2022, according to prosecutors.
The former educator — a two-time winner in the popular quiz show in 2014, TMZ reported — is accused of targeting at least five girls and one boy in at least 11 separate incidents. The victims were students at Saint Ann’s School, Poly Prep Country Day School, Berkeley Carroll School and Packer Collegiate Institute. Prosecutors believe there are other children who were victimized by Nguyen.
In the first four of the attacks on law enforcement’s radar, Nguyen, under the username hunterkristoff, sent a 14-year-old child a video of a naked boy masturbating and then asked the teen to send him sexual images. Investigators later determined the boy in the videos is 16-years-old and lives in a different state.
Nguyen continued after contacting the teen, and under the same phony username asked for nude photos and virtual sexual performances from kids between 13 and 15.
In May, a 15-year-old received messages on Snapchat from user haircutbongos. After some back and forth, Nguyen allegedly paid the child for sexually charged photos and videos, which he then shared online. Investigators later connected the social media accounts to Nguyen’s Harlem home.
“The fact that he was a teacher and a trusted figure among students make these allegations even more troubling,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “We will now seek to hold him accountable and will continue to work diligently to protect children from sexual exploitation.”
Following an arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday, Nguyen was held on a 30,000 cash bail or $75,000 bond.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office asks anyone with further information about Nguyen or the case to email [email protected].
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