Sextortionist sentenced to 33 years for targeting 145 children
Recorded: May 28, 2026, 10:01 a.m.
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A Canadian man was sentenced to thirty-three years in prison after pleading guilty to coercing and enticing more than one hundred forty-five children across the United States in an eight-year sextortion scheme. Ramanan Pathmanathan, a forty-year-old individual, admitted guilt to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, along with one count of child pornography production. In addition to the imposed prison sentence, Pathmanathan must register as a sex offender and serve ten years of supervised release, building upon a previous twelve-year term already served in Canada for similar offenses. The sextortion scheme involved targeting at least one hundred forty-five young victims between March 2014 and his arrest in March 2021. Pathmanathan operated by posing as a teenage boy from New Jersey to establish rapport with the victims. His coercion involved demanding that the minor victims engage in sexually explicit conduct through video chats. The Justice Department stated that Pathmanathan directed the children to expose their genitals and engage in sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives during these interactions. Furthermore, the Department indicated that in almost all of these video chats, Pathmanathan supplied the children with images of adults engaged in sexual acts to instruct them on the conduct he required. Pathmanathan recorded the sexually explicit conduct of his victims and saved these files on his desktop computer. The victims targeted by this scheme included children as young as six years old. When the minor victims refused to continue the sexually explicit engagement or attempted to block Pathmanathan's social media accounts, he threatened to distribute the recordings to the children's friends or family. This act of blackmail was part of the larger scheme, which is defined as online blackmail using publicly leaked explicit images or videos obtained through coercion or hacking, sometimes demanding payment to prevent release. In September 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning regarding a significant increase in sextortion complaints and advised individuals receiving such threats to immediately cease all contact with the criminals, contact law enforcement, and file a complaint without delay. This incident highlights the severe online dangers posed by sextortion, particularly when targeting minors, and underscores the legal consequences of exploiting vulnerable individuals through digital coercion and the distribution of explicit material. |