Former 'Survivor' contestant gets up to 4 years in prison for child porn
DETROIT _ Former "Survivor" TV contestant Michael Skupin was sentenced Tuesday to one to four years in prison after he was convicted in November on four counts of possessing child pornography.
Skupin, 54, of Farmington Hills, was sentenced before Oakland County 6th Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts, according to a news release from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's office. Skupin was also ordered to pay $31,800 in restitution and serve probation for financial crimes relating to a Ponzi scheme investigation that then snared him on the child pornography charges.
Once out of prison, he will be required to register as a sex offender and he'll be restricted from using a computer outside of work purposes, according to the release.
Skupin, appeared during the 2001 season of "Survivor: The Australian Outback" and also "Survivor: Philippines."
Skupin was initially charged by Schuette in February with counts of financial crimes of larceny by conversion and racketeering as well as the child pornography charges.
An investigation began into Skupin after victims from his alleged Ponzi scheme contacted a local news reporter. According to the attorney general's office, Skupin recruited investors and friends to take part in his "gifting scheme" called Pay It Forward.
Victims made cash investments in the scheme and their money would then cycle through a chart in which participants were eventually paid out of other new investors' money.
According to the attorney general's office, the scheme was discovered when there were no new investors signing up and most people in the scheme lost all of their money.
Skupin's laptop was searched in connection with the Ponzi scheme and investigators discovered images of underage children in sexual situations.
_Detroit Free Press
