Recently, an individual was sentenced to prison for 40 years for the crime of sextortion that was aimed against minors. Sextortion is a relatively new crime that has been seen more and more in the United States with the invention of the internet and the webcam. The recently convicted man from Indiana will now serve 40 years behind bars and pay a $700,000 for his offense. He coerced more than a dozen teenagers into performing sexual acts online with a web camera for him, and then used these recordings as blackmail to force them to make even more explicit videos. The teens say that they were commanded to strip and perform sexual acts on a regular basis for their online captor. The offender was originally from Brazil, and was arrested promptly after his crime was discovered.
The criminal plead guilty to his crime after arrest in order to receive a recommended sentence of 30 to 50 years. He specifically pled guilty to child exploitation, possession of child pornography, and extortion. Prosecutors say that they doubt this offender will outlive his 40 year sentence, making it essentially a life sentence for him. If he does survive the 40 years, then this offender will be supervised by federal officials for the rest of his life following release, as is commonly appropriate for sexual offenders.
This particular suspect was charged in April of 2012 with operating what has become known as a "sextortion" scheme. Allegedly, his scheme targeted hundreds of children throughout the United States. Some of the children were as young as 12 years old when they became caught up in the criminal scheme. Investigators say that they were able to locate files and data on the criminal's electronic records and seize more than 22,000 video files that were captured on webcam feeds. About half of these 22,000 different clips are filled with sexual acts and sexual conduct by minors.
This sex offender would gather most of his victims by meeting them on a video chat website called omegle.com. The website allows users to have random and anonymous one-on-one chats with strangers. The site says that it is not permitted for use by children that are under the age of 13, and that teens that are younger than 18 cannot go on the website if they do not have permission from a parent or guardian. This is because the website is often used for explicit purposes, as was evidenced by this case.
Prosecutors on the case claim that the teens went on the website for anonymous chats and thought that they were watching other live people doing sexually explicit acts. They were encouraged by the strangers to do the same. When the teens complied, they were recorded by the criminal, who had really been showing them recordings. After roping the teenagers in with one video, this criminal would contact them and reveal who he was, saying that he would upload their videos to a pornographic website if they did not create more explicit videos for his personal use. Many of the teens complied out of fear.
The victims range from 12 to 16 years old, and live in nine states including Indiana, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Colorado, West Virginia, and Iowa. One report shows that a 12-year-old boy pleaded with the criminal not to post his sexually explicit videos on a pornographic website after he refused to do anymore. The criminal refused to listen to the boy and uploaded the videos anyway. Prosecutors say that with the use of the internet becoming common place, there are more individuals that are working to catch victims in embarrassing situations online and threaten to expose them unless they continue to create videos of this nature. If you have been charged with "sextortion" then you need to talk to an attorney today for more information.
