The son of a multimillionaire doctor dubbed the 'father of telemedicine' has been jailed for 18 years for child porn offenses.

Zackary Sanders, 27, was given the jail term by a federal judge who praised him as 'a pretty amazing, inventive, energetic young man. 

But he added: 'What you did was wrong.' 

Sanders's father is Jay Sanders, 84, a Harvard-educated doctor who is credited with popularizing telemedicine in the 1990s when he advised the Clinton administration.

The family owned a $3.4 million, seven bedroom home n McLean, Virginia, but sold it in May last year, five months before their son was convicted at trial.

It appears to be this property where, according to court documents, 26 law enforcement agents carried out a 6am raid in February 2020 with their guns drawn.

They are said to have 'pulled Mr.

Sanders's parents out of their home and forced Mr. Sanders at gunpoint into his mother's office'.

Members of Sanders's family, including his mother Risa, 64, appeared tense while in court for the sentencing of their son in Alexandria, Virginia, last week.

Sanders was jailed by judge T.S.

Ellis for 12 counts relating to receiving, producing and possessing child pornography.

The trial heard that he engaged in conversations with at least six minors on messaging apps and possessed sick videos and images including one which depicted the sexual abuse of a toddler.

Sanders directed five of the minors to engage in sexually explicit where they harmed themselves and to film themselves doing it - and send the videos to him.

Prosecutors said that Sanders possessed videos and images of underage children being 'subjected to sadistic acts'.

Upon Sanders's release he will have to sign on as a sex offender and will be subject to supervision for the rest of his life.

Judge Ellis told Sanders that some of the images in his possession were 'quite awful'.

He said: 'You're a smart young man, you can do better.

But you need to understand what you did was wrong, it was criminal and you cannot do it ever again'.

Before his conviction Sanders enjoyed a life of privilege thanks to the success of his father, who is president of Global Telemedicine Group, whose clients have included the World Health Organization and the US Department of Defense.

Jay Sanders is currently an adjunct professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who served as the telemedicine representative to the G8 group of industrialized nations during the Clinton administration.

He helped set up the first telemedicine facility in a correctional institute and in 1991 designed the telemedicine system for the state of Georgia.

It was the first statewide system of its kind and it served as the model for many others.

Jay Sanders's son studied theater at NYU before founding a lighting and concessions business, Oasis Entertainment.

On its website the company says it offers concessions stands, lighting and DJs to 'keep any party rocking'.

The company boasts that it is 'proud to be certified by the FDA to operate high powered entertainment lasers'.

On his Twitter account, Sanders calls him: 'Entrepreneur - Visionary - Designer'.

The Sanders family's zealous representation of their son included several different lawyers who filed emergency motions to try to get him out of prison.

They sued the FBI for breaching FOIA laws after submitting a request for records from the agency related to its investigations of sex traffickers.

Sanders's parents offered to be third party custodians of their son and his mother Risa even testified in court she would be willing to do whatever the court wanted, including removing his electronic devices and making her son wear a monitoring device. 

Judge Ellis remarked that he had seen 'seven or eight' different law firms before him, such was the amount of money the family spent on legal representation.

At sentencing he said he had 'no doubt his parents will continue to support him'.

However Judge Ellis ruled that Sanders was too broke to pay a $60,000 special assessment for now and would have to wait until he served his sentence.

Sanders's only possession - aside from his family's wealth - is his car, Judge Ellis said.

Judge Ellis went on to praise Sanders and said that he expected he would bounce back after he completed his jail term.

He said: 'He is a pretty amazing, inventive, energetic young man. Enterprising would be the best word I could use.

'Even as a child he developed a business…I have no doubt that while his conviction would be a significant burden if he wants to work for Goldman Sachs, they will not be a significant burden if he becomes an entrepreneur, which he will.

'I think he does have earning potential in the future.'

Judge Ellis has attracted controversy for comments about defendants before, including at the trial of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign manager.

While jailing Manafort for 47 months for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme Judge Ellis said that the sentencing guidelines of between 19 and 24 years were 'vindictive' and 'way out of whack'.

He said: 'Go and spend a day in the jail or penitentiary of the federal government.

Spend a week there. He has to spend 47 months'.

Judge Ellis added that Manafort, who previously ran a lobbying firm that worked for third world dictators, had led an 'otherwise blameless life'.

The Sanders family and their lawyer Christopher Amolsch did not respond to messages asking for comment