An Oakland County man is facing multiple federal charges for allegedly sexually exploiting young girls online while posing as a teen boy.
Brandon John Cifani, 29, was arrested on Sept. 16, 2025. The investigation began about two months prior, when a border patrol agent found child sexually explicit content in the man’s phone during a search at the Detroit Metro Airport.
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On July 9, 2025, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer contacted Homeland Security about the results of an inspection at the Detroit Metro Airport.
The officer said during a secondary inspection of Cifani, suspected child pornography was found on his iPhone in the “recently deleted” image folder.
Homeland Security responded to the airport and examined the detained iPhone. Federal officials said there were multiple videos in the “recently deleted” folder of young girls. The sexually explicit videos appeared to have been captured from various video chat platforms through a screen recording function.
Court documents detailed two particular videos containing child sexually abusive material, one that was recorded on June 12, 2025, and another that was recorded on May 26, 2025.
Federal officials said there were also photos of girls that appeared to have been taken secretly in public using a camera to capture up the girls’ skirts.
Man poses as teen to communicate with Michigan girl, according to feds
On July 30, 2025, authorities executed a search warrant of Cifani’s phone and reportedly found multiple iMessages between him posing as a teenage boy named “Brody” and a girl in her teens.
According to court documents, there were multiple screen recordings of FaceTime calls between Cifani and the child on the man’s phone.
On Aug. 13, 2025, Homeland Security investigators interviewed the teen girl.
She told federal authorities that she was 16 years old when she started communicating with Cifani, whom she believed was a teen boy named Brody. She said “Brody” told her he was 17 years old.
The teen girl said “Brody” offered gifts in exchange for her to display her body to him. She also said that “Brody” wanted her to break up with her prom date.
Authorities said the teen identified herself in the videos found on Cifani’s phone and identified photos on the man’s phone, believed to be “Brody.”
The teen girl said she received texts from another phone number on July 31, 2025, and she suspected this number to be “Brody.”
The teen girl’s mother gave federal officials two photos of an iMessage exchange starting on July 31, 2025, from the girl’s phone to the new number, in which the person using it offered DoorDash, “an LV pouch for your keys and cards,” and said, “Like seriously, I want him gone.”
On Aug. 1, the person using the phone asked the teen to “ft” (FaceTime) and continued to contact the teen through Aug. 8, 2025.
Homeland Security investigators received records on Aug. 25, 2025, showing that the subscriber of the phone number that continued to contact the teen girl was Cifani.
Man poses as teen to communicate with 12-year-old, feds say
Homeland Security investigators identified the subscriber of the phone number that appeared briefly on the sexually explicit video dated May 26, 2025. The subscriber was determined to be a man in the Dallas, Texas, area.
On Aug. 20, 2025, investigators contacted the subscriber and identified him as the father of the child in the FaceTime screen recording.
Investigators interviewed the child, a 12-year-old girl, and she said Cifani, who was allegedly posing as a teen boy, tried to convince her to engage in sexual acts involving objects and told her to perform the sexual acts recorded in the FaceTime video allegedly found on Cifani’s phone.
The girl told police she believed the person she was communicating with was a teen boy.
Federal charges
Federal officials executed a search warrant at Cifani’s home on Sept. 16, 2025. During the search, agents found Cifani’s new phone, which was believed to have been used to continue communication with the Michigan teen.
Agents also identified a particular ceiling fan in Cifani’s home that was seen in multiple screen-recorded videos, including those containing child sexually abusive material found on the man’s original phone.
Cifani faces federal charges of child sexual exploitation, receipt, distribution, and possession of child pornography, and coercion and enticement of minors.