An Orange County CEO suspected of using a social messaging application to convince two young boys to trade explicit photos and videos with him is being held on $2 million bail.

Qayed Murtaza Shareef, 39, is facing 33 felonies, including more than two dozen counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, as well as possessing child pornography and sending harmful matter to a minor with the intent of seduction, court records show.

Shareef, an Aliso Viejo resident, is the founder and CEO of Adaptive Media, a Irvine-based digital advertising company that specializes in video content, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Shareef pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Friday arraignment at the Central Jail Complex in Santa Ana. Attorney Ricardo Nicol said Shareef “maintains his innocence” and is “confident that he will be vindicated through the legal process.”

A representative for Adaptive Media, when reached for comment Friday night, indicated that the company is preparing a statement for release on Monday.

Between Christmas day and Dec. 29 in 2013, prosecutors say Shareef used an online messaging application called Tango to contact a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy who lived in Virginia.

It wasn’t immediately clear if authorities suspect Shareef of telling the boys he is an adult or of pretending to be a minor. Using the fake name of “Jeremy Stevens,” authorities say Shareef convinced the two boys to “commit sex acts with each other.”

Investigators believe Shareef directed the boys to record their sexual activity on a tablet to email the video to Shareef’s Tango account, according to an Orange County District Attorney’s Office statement.

Prosecutors say Shareef also recorded “sex acts” he performed on himself, and sent video of that, along with adult pornography, to the two boys. Authorities acknowledged that there is no indication that Shareef had direct physical contact with the boys.

However, under California law, a lewd or lascivious act can occur if someone willfully causes a child to touch their body or another child’s body in an effort to arouse someone’s sexual desires.

The mother of one of the boys spotted the video on his tablet on Dec. 30, 2013 and contacted a law enforcement agency in Virginia.

The case was turned over to the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, a multi-agency team that includes investigators from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Newport Beach Police Department.

Shareef was arrested on Wednesday. He is being held at the Central Jail Complex in Santa Ana.

If convicted, Shareef faces up to 752 years to life in state prison, according to the DA’s office.

Shareef’s attorney described him as a “well-respected businessman” and a “generous contributor to charitable causes.” Nicol noted that Shareef was born in Afghanistan and witnesseds first-hand the “horrors and trauma of war” following the Soviet Invasion, before he became a child refugee in India and finally moved to the United States with his mother and brother at the age of 11.

“He has the support of his family and his colleagues,” Nicol wrote in a statement Friday.

Authorities say the investigation is ongoing, and are asking anyone who believes they may have been a victim to contact either Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Wade Walsviek at 714-647-7418 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Kelly Core at 714-347-8794.

Staff writer Kelly Puente contributed to this report.