A passenger aboard the Celebrity Beyond was charged with video voyeurism after crew members found a hidden camera in a public bathroom, according to U.S. District Court records cited by the Virgin Islands Daily News. The incident occurred during the ship’s 8-day Caribbean voyage from Miami.
The passenger, Robert Qi Peng, was arrested on Thursday, April 2, 2026, after the ship arrived in St. Thomas, according to the warrant filed by the FBI.
Peng told FBI agents he bought a pen camera on Amazon several months prior and set up the device on March 30 in a unisex public bathroom on the ship. The following day the camera was discovered by the ship’s crew members. St. Thomas Source reported that the device had been hidden beneath discarded hand towels, allowing it to record passengers using the restroom without their knowledge.
After the Celebrity Beyond arrived at Crown Bay, federal agents and port authorities reviewed the device and found about 90 minutes of video showing passengers, including at least one child, using the bathroom.
Peng was charged in U.S. District Court with video voyeurism. He made an initial court appearance on April 2 and was released on $1,000 bond. He faces up to a year in prison and a maximum $100,000 fine if convicted. In a similar case previously reported by Cruise Law News, cruise passenger Jeremy Jonathan Froias served less than a year in prison after recording over 150 people in a cruise bathroom.
This is the second video voyeurism case this week. Earlier this week, a man was arrested on video voyeurism charges for recording a 15-year-old in a cabin bathroom.
If the crew aboard Celebrity Beyond had not discovered the device, the recordings likely would have continued for the rest of the voyage. Cases like this show how vulnerable cruise passengers remain when predators turn ship bathrooms and other onboard spaces into places of surveillance and exploitation.
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