A 40-year-old Canadian national has been sentenced to 33 years in federal prison after admitting to targeting over 145 children across the United States in an eight-year sextortion operation that victimized children as young as six years old.
Bleeping Computer reports that Ramanan Pathmanathan, a Canadian national, entered a guilty plea on January 30, 2026, to charges including one count of coercion and enticement of a minor and one count of child pornography production. The 33-year sentence marks a significant legal consequence for crimes that spanned nearly a decade and affected many victims throughout the United States.
In addition to the 33-year prison term, Pathmanathan must register as a sex offender and will face 10 years of supervised release following his incarceration. The sentence adds to his existing 12-year prison term in Canada, which he received after pleading guilty to similar offenses in 2022.
Sextortion represents a particularly insidious form of online blackmail where perpetrators threaten victims with the public release of explicit images and videos. These materials are typically obtained either through coercion or by hacking into personal accounts. In many sextortion cases, criminals attempt to extort money from victims by threatening to distribute compromising content, sometimes using fabricated or non-existent material.
However, according to court documents, Pathmanathan’s crimes involved actual recorded material. He operated multiple accounts on Instagram and Facebook Messenger to make contact with and record his victims during sexual acts.
Between March 2014 and his arrest on March 10, 2021, Pathmanathan contacted at least 145 young victims while impersonating a teenage boy from New Jersey. This deceptive persona allowed him to establish contact with children who might otherwise have been suspicious of adult strangers reaching out online.
The Justice Department outlined the disturbing details of Pathmanathan’s criminal activities in a statement released on Wednesday. According to the department, Pathmanathan demanded that minor victims engage in sexually explicit conduct during video chat sessions. He directed children to expose their genitals and coerced them into performing sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives.
The Justice Department stated that in almost all video chat sessions with his minor victims, Pathmanathan sent children images of adults engaged in sexual acts to demonstrate what he was requesting them to do. He systematically recorded the sexually explicit conduct of his victims and saved the files on his desktop computer. The victims ranged widely in age, with some as young as six years old.
When victims attempted to discontinue the abuse by declining to continue engaging in sexually explicit conduct or by blocking Pathmanathan’s social media accounts, he employed threatening tactics. He warned children that he would send images to their friends or family members if they did not comply with his demands, creating a cycle of fear and manipulation that kept many victims trapped.
Law enforcement officials encourage parents and guardians to maintain open communication with children about online safety and to monitor their internet activities. Experts emphasize that victims of sextortion should understand they are not at fault and that reporting these crimes is essential for both their own protection and preventing additional victims.
Breitbart News previously reported that the parents of a teen that tragically took his own life after a sextortion scheme labeled the perpetrators “godless demons:”
Three hours later, Bryce was found dead in his home, having taken his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His devastated father, Adam Tate, believes that his son was the victim of a ruthless sextortion scheme targeting teenage boys. “They say it’s suicide, but in my book, it is 100% murder,” Adam told the Post. “They’re godless demons, in my opinion. Just cowards, awful individuals, worse than criminals.”
Sextortion schemes involve online scammers meticulously studying public social media profiles to gather information about their targets, then pose as flirtatious peers to gain the victim’s trust. The scammers use stolen or AI-generated images to trick the target into sending their own intimate photos, then threaten to embarass the target in public if they don’t continue sexual contact or pay sums of money. Sextortion schemes have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reporting over 33,000 cases in 2024 alone, and nearly the same number in the first six months of this year.
In Bryce’s case, the scammer posed as a local 17-year-old girl, demonstrating knowledge of Bryce’s gym, best friends, and his involvement in basketball at Nitro High School. Once trust was established, the scammer requested illicit photos and, upon receiving them, demanded $500 from Bryce, threatening to share the photos with his family and friends if he failed to comply.
Read more at Bleeping Computer here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.