Michael Skupin is most notorious for being the first Survivor contestant to be medically evacuated, after he fainted and fell into a fire during the show’s second season. And if it were up to him, he would have kept it that way. Instead, Skupin once again finds himself in the news, after being convicted on Friday on four of six counts of possession of child pornography, Page Six reports.
Skupin, 54, first came to the attention of local authorities after it was revealed that he’d been running a Ponzi scheme that robbed victims of $10,000. While combing through his laptop, they discovered multiple images of underage children in sexually explicit positions, according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
“Not only did this man rob people of their hard earned savings with his financial scams but he victimized innocent children every time he looked at a piece of child pornography,” Schuette added. “This man seems to have no concept or caring for right and wrong and will be prosecuted under the full extent of the law for these horrific crimes.”
Before his trial began, Skupin pleaded his innocence to People magazine, claiming that other parties had used his computer, and that the photos were not viewed by him. “This has been the longest, hardest, and most arduous 10 months of my entire life. Nothing compares to it,” the statement read. “Family and friends have both shown up in a big way or have left my life completely. I have witnessed a level of love I never thought possible — and also a level of judgment and abandonment that I never knew existed.”
The father of seven faces up to four years for each count. He will be sentenced on Dec. 27, 2016.
