Ex-CEO of cancer institute faces child sex allegations

The former CEO of the short-lived Nevada Cancer Institute is scheduled to appear in federal court in Las Vegas on Monday on allegations that he planned to have sex with a 13-year-old girl at a Henderson hotel-casino in January.

Michael Steven Goldman, 58, of Palm Desert, Calif., was released from federal custody on Friday following his Jan. 9 arrest by undercover officers at Sunset Station, where he handed over sexually explicit images of children in exchange for “Tanya,” an imaginary minor propped up for the investigation, according to allegations contained in documents filed in U.S. District Court.

Although he is free, Goldman will be monitored closely to make sure he has no contact with children, according to an agreement reached in federal court on Friday.

A man reached at his Palm Desert home Saturday night said Goldman wasn’t home for comment.

Goldman, an oncology management consultant based in Rancho Mirage, Calif., had served as the CEO of the cancer institute, which was shuttered in December in a surprise move by its operator, the University of California, San Diego.

The child sex sting, carried out by Henderson police and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, got under way on Jan. 4 when an undercover Henderson police officer started “chatting” with Goldman via email in an “incest” chatroom on motherless.com, according to court documents.

In the days leading up to Goldman’s arrest, he and the undercover officer talked about making a swap: He would get to have his way with Tanya in exchange for two explicit images of young girls kissing one another with only shirts on, and one photograph of a young girl performing oral sex on an adult male, the documents state.

The undercover officer had been posing as a father who was looking for a man such as Goldman to serve as a “mentor” and “teacher” to his daughter so she could learn what it’s like to be “a sexual woman,” documents state.

At one point in the email conversations, Goldman asked the undercover officer if he was a cop, to which the officer said “no.” The officer then asked Goldman if he were a cop, to which Goldman said “no.”

During the course of the dozens of emails, Goldman, who called himself “Mickey,” admitted to the officer that he had been with a younger girl a few years ago, when she was only 12, the documents state.

The officer asked who the girl was, and Goldman said that she was the “daughter of my sub,” which means “submissive sexual partner” in the world of child pornography.

Eventually, the undercover officer started sending Goldman photographs of the 13-year-old girl, but the reality is that it was a photograph of a female Henderson police officer whose image was “regressed” and “blurred” for such purposes.

At one point, the documents state that Goldman was under the impression that he was actually having conversations with Tanya, and he’d email her questions such as, “Do you think I’m weird that I want to be with you?” and she would say, “No, do you think it’s weird that I want to be with you?” to which he would say “no.”

The rendezvous was set for just before noon at the casino, at which point the undercover officer met Goldman, then asked him for the thumb drive and the key to his room. He told Goldman that he wanted to make sure everything was safe and secure because it was, after all, his daughter who he would be handing over to Goldman.

Goldman obliged.

It was at that point that undercover officers descended on Goldman and read him his Miranda rights.

During interrogation at the Henderson police station, Goldman told officers he wasn’t sure he was going to have sex with the girl when he met her, but that “maybe” he would have, the documents state.

Goldman admitted that he had just started watching child pornography a year ago, and that he was sexually aroused by it, they state.

He is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate George Foley on charges of traveling to engage in unlawful sexual activity, coercion and enticement and transporting child pornography.

There is a possibility that he might enter a plea agreement, the Review-Journal has learned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.