Rev. Jeffrey Nowak, a Catholic priest within the Diocese of Buffalo on administrative leave since 2019, was arrested and charged Wednesday with receipt and possession of child pornography, United States Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced.
According to the criminal complaint, the investigation leading to this week’s arrest began back in August 2019, when Nowak was placed on administrative leave followed allegations of inappropriate contact with children and harassment of a seminarian.
In December of that year, an email address linked to Nowak, pigboybuffalo@gmail.com, was identified as an address that accessed a New Zealand cloud-based digital storage and file-hosting website and application which contained photos and videos files of sexually exploited children.
The FBI began an investigation in May 2021, executing a search warrant for that email address. No child pornography was found, and that investigation was closed in July 2023.
But in late 2025, the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit (CEOU) was contacted by law enforcers in Scotland who were looking into activity by a group whose members participated in group Zoom calls, during which members were observed viewing and sharing child pornography.
During this probe, investigators identified the username PigBoy666 which was later linked to Nowak. The FBI reopened their case in March of this year.
On Wednesday, a search warrant was executed at his home, during which a cell phone, laptop, iPad and USB storage device were all seized. Suspected narcotics were also taken. Federal prosecutors say initial checks of the electronic devices found several files of child pornography.
Nowak is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court Thursday morning. If convicted, he would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison but could receive a maximum of 20 years.