Man Pleads Guilty to Luring Girl on Internet

A Woodland Hills financial advisor, who allegedly called himself “Valleyguy” on the Internet, pleaded guilty Friday to luring a 13-year-old Connecticut girl he met in cyberspace to his hotel room to have sex.

Francis John Kufrovich, 43, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in New Haven, admitting he had used the Internet, telephone lines and the U.S. mail to lure a minor into an illegal sexual act. He also admitted traveling from California to Texas intending to engage in an illegal sexual act with a minor.

Kufrovich, who was prosecuted under a provision of the Communications Decency Act, will be sentenced June 10. He faces a maximum of 20 years in jail and a $500,000 fine.

Federal prosecutors argued that Kufrovich first met the girl on the Internet in early 1996. In earlier court proceedings, the prosecutors said Kufrovich posed several questions of her, including, “Are you a virgin?”

Kufrovich was accused of arranging to meet the teenager in March 1996, while she was attending a swim meet in Irving, Texas. He took a room in the same hotel where the girl and her mother were staying, prosecutors said, and then lured the young, pajama-clad teen into his room.

He tried to have sex with the girl, prosecutors said, but was interrupted when the girl’s mother knocked on the door, searching for her daughter.

U.S. Attorney John H. Durham said Friday that if the case had gone to trial, the government was prepared to present testimony from three other minors about their sexual relationships with Kufrovich.