A 30-year-old Riverside man already required to register for life as a sex offender was sentenced to 480 months in federal prison on Friday after admitting he solicited children across the country to produce sexually explicit material, some of it in exchange for cash sent through CashApp. United States District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes handed down the 40-year term during a hearing in downtown Riverside, closing out a case that stretched from a 2015 state conviction to a sprawling online exploitation scheme uncovered years later.
Ricardo Francisco Aguado pleaded guilty on April 24, 2026, to one count of production of child pornography and one count of committing a felony offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender, according to the KESQ report on his sentencing. The U.S. Attorney's Office says Aguado solicited several minors to provide images of themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct, with victims ranging in age from 12 to 15 years old and residing in Florida, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
A Scheme That Began on Discord in 2020
Prosecutors say Aguado befriended one victim, a boy who was 14 in May 2022, on Discord back in August 2020. He later contacted the same victim through Instagram and by cellphone, allegedly using Discord, Snapchat, Instagram and other platforms to solicit sexually explicit images and videos. According to the Justice Department, he agreed to pay that victim $40 via CashApp for explicit content, and in May 2022 he distributed a sexually explicit video of the victim to another Snapchat user.
An investigation into Aguado's online accounts and digital devices found that he communicated with several minors online over several years, per the U.S. Attorney's Office. The case involved Discord, Instagram, Snapchat and CashApp, as well as victims who lived outside California.
A Prior Conviction That Never Should Have Allowed a Repeat
Aguado was already on the radar of California law enforcement before any of this happened. He was convicted of multiple child sexual exploitation-related charges, including possession and distribution of child pornography, in Riverside County Superior Court in 2015, and was sentenced to 40 months in state prison. He served roughly two of those years before his release from state custody in 2017 — meaning he was free in the community for about three years before he began reoffending online.
That earlier conviction placed Aguado on lifetime sex-offender registration. Under Senate Bill 384, enacted in 2021, the state moved to a three-tiered registry, context Hoodline has previously reported in a separate registrant case.
Registration Requirement Applied to His Case
Aguado was already subject to that registration requirement when he committed his new crimes.
Assistant United States Attorney Sonah Lee of the Major Crimes Section prosecuted the case, while retained attorneys Jesse Ruiz and Alejandro Benitez represented Aguado. He has been in federal custody since August 2024.
Lifetime Supervision and Restitution
Alongside the 480-month sentence, Judge Sykes ordered Aguado to pay $3,200 in restitution and placed him on lifetime supervised release.
The case focused on online child sexual exploitation. It remains unclear whether additional victims could be identified from the digital devices seized in the investigation, or how Aguado's state parole oversight between 2017 and his 2024 federal arrest intersected with the online conduct prosecutors say began in 2020.
