BUFFALO — Jeffrey Nowak, 46, of Lackawanna, a priest who had been placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Buffalo, was arrested July 8, 2026 and charged by criminal complaint with receipt and possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced Thursday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the complaint states that Nowak was placed on administrative leave in August 2019 amid an investigation into allegations of inappropriate contact with children and harassment of a seminarian. In December 2019, an email address linked to Nowak — pigboybuffalo@gmail.com — was identified as having accessed a New Zealand cloud storage service that contained images and videos of sexually exploited children.
The release says the FBI executed a search warrant for the email address in May 2021 but did not locate child pornography at that time and the investigation was closed in July 2023. The investigation was later re-opened by FBI Buffalo in March 2026 after a referral from Scotland related to a Telegram group; investigators linked the username PigBoy666 to Nowak, the complaint alleges.
On July 8, 2026, federal agents executed a search warrant at Nowak’s residence and seized multiple electronic devices — including a cell phone, laptop, iPad and a USB storage device — and suspected narcotics. An initial review of the electronics, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, recovered folders containing videos of child pornography.
Nowak was charged by criminal complaint with receipt and possession of child pornography, offenses that the release says carry a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer on July 9, 2026, at 11:30 a.m.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified the prosecutor as Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Buffalo Field Office), the New York State Police and the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, the release states. The announcement quoted U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo and Allen D. Davis II, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office cautioned that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
