A former “Jeopardy!” champion hired to teach at an elite Brooklyn Heights private school is accused of deceiving students into sending him explicit photos and sharing child pornography, prosecutors revealed Thursday.
A 30-count criminal complaint details the alleged misconduct of Winston Nguyen, who was arrested last month in front of his students. He was initially released without charges while the investigation continued.
Ngyuen, 37, taught math at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights, where he allegedly pretended to be a young teen and fellow student when engaging in sexually explicit conversations over the app Snapchat.
But the alleged misconduct extends beyond the Pierrepont Street school. Ngyuen is said to have preyed on five girls and one boy between October 2022 and May 2024. The victims attended various Brooklyn private schools, including Saint Ann’s, Poly Prep Country Day School, Berkeley Carroll School and Packer Collegiate Institute.
“A complicated investigation by detectives from my office revealed extremely disturbing conduct by this defendant, who allegedly posed as a peer to coax teenagers to send him sexually explicit images of themselves, which he then allegedly distributed,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “The fact that he was a teacher and a trusted figure among students make these allegations even more troubling. We will now seek to hold him accountable and will continue to work diligently to protect children from sexual exploitation.”
Ngyuen was arraigned on July 25 in Brooklyn Criminal Court. His charges include use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child, first-degree disseminating indecent material to minors, third-degree conspiracy, third-degree criminal solicitation and endangering the welfare of a child.
Of 11 charged incidents, the first four involved a child who, starting when they were 14, received multiple video messages from an account traced back to the defendant’s Harlem residence depicting a nude boy masturbating. The young victim was subsequently asked to send images of them nude or performing sexual acts, according to the DA’s office. Investigators located the boy seen on the videos, who lives in another state and was 16 at the time.
The same account was allegedly used to conduct prolonged communications that described and depicted various sexual acts and requested images of nudity and sexual performances from four additional victims, between the ages of 13 and 15.
The sixth victim, who was 15, received messages from another account linked to Ngyuen that engaged them in similar conversations and made similar requests. In May 2024, the child sent a video performing a sexual act, which they were allegedly paid for by the defendant.
Ngyuen is also accused of sharing some of the explicit photos he received from the victims when chatting with other children.
Bail was set at $30,000 cash or $75,000 bond with the former gameshow winner set to return to court on Oct. 17.
Anyone with information about this case or Ngyuen is asked to email ReportSNAPCHATImages@
