Pittsfield Township man convicted of traveling to New York to have sex with minor

A Pittsfield Township man has been convicted of traveling to New York last year to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met in an online chat room.

Muchamad Syaugy Ali Syech pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Detroit to one count of interstate travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, court records show.

FBI agents said Ali Syech was 33 years old when he drove on March 5, 2011, from Michigan to New York, where he picked up the girl near her home in a small town outside Albany. He took her to a hotel in North Greenbrush, where they had sex.

Agents said Ali Syech started chatting with the girl in November 2009 in the chat room "home alone," telling her he was 17 after learning she was in middle school.

Ali Syech is a citizen of Indonesia and was in the United States because his wife was attending graduate school at the University of Michigan. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 19, when he faces up to 30 years in prison.

Lee Higgins covers crime and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at (734) 623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.