N.B. man faces sex charge in U.S.

MADAWASKA – An Edmundston, New Brunswick, businessman was expected to have his initial appearance in federal court in New York on Friday on charges of traveling to the United States with the intent to have sex with a minor.

He faces fines and a maximum jail term of 30 years, according to federal law enforcement officials.

Normand Corno, 49, is a well-known local business consultant, member of the Economic Council of New Brunswick, and two-time president of the annual Foire Brayon festival in Edmundston, which is just across the St. John River from Madawaska.

He also is president of Cabinet-conseil Corno and Corno Consultants – two marketing and business consulting firms based in Edmundston – and founder of the bilingual consulting Internet-based company Webetic.com

Corno was arrested in upstate New York on Wednesday night by special agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has been held without bail since his arrest, according to Michael Gilhooly, senior public affairs officer with ICE.

It was alleged that Corno, who had traveled more than 400 miles from Edmundston, possibly entering the U.S. through the Cornwall, Ontario, port of entry to the United States, was on his way to meet a 13-year-old girl in Massena, N.Y., to have sex with her.

“Traveling to the United States to have sexual relations with a minor is a serious criminal act,” Peter Smith, agent in charge of the Buffalo Office of ICE was quoted as saying in a press release.

The office of the U.S. attorney in Syracuse, which represents the northern district of New York and is prosecuting the case, did not return telephone inquiries Friday.

Gilhooly said Corno came to the attention of ICE agents during an undercover operation, but would not say whether it involved the Internet.

ICE, which was formed in 2003, began Operation Predator as a worldwide effort to protect young people from smugglers, human traffickers, pornographers and sex predators. More than 6,500 people have been arrested as of Oct. 19, according to the agency’s Web site.

L’Acadie Nouvelle, a French daily newspaper in New Brunswick, reported Friday that Corno, the married father of two, was being held in a jail in Canton, N.Y., in the northern part of the state.

The newspaper also reported that Corno’s offices in Edmundston were closed Thursday. They remained closed Friday.

Law professor Donald Poirier of the University of Moncton, New Brunswick, was quoted as saying that agents of ICE “probably infiltrated the Internet, and possibly passed themselves off as a 13-year-old girl.”

Corno was once a professor of administration at the University of Moncton’s Edmundston campus.

“The effect of these charges on his career will be devastating,” Poirier said in the article.

Anyone with information that might help agents identify or investigate sexual predators should call ICE’s toll-free reporting number at (866) 347-2423.