Minnesota Man Sentenced for Computer Extortion Involving Confidential Pictures, Video

Source: FBI

COLUMBUS, OH—Demonte Johntrell Latimore, 28, of St. Paul, Minn, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 48 months in prison, to be served concurrently with a separate federal gun sentence, for threatening to impair the confidentiality of information obtained from a protected computer without authorization.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Angela L. Byers, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Field Division and Newark Police Chief Barry Connell, announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson.

According to court documents, a female student in a college library in Newark, Ohio had her laptop computer stolen. A few weeks later, the victim received an e-mail from an unknown subject using the e-mail address “iwant300dollars” that indicated that the sender had something the victim wanted back “very badly” and commented that the victim “had a lovely body.”

Latimore found explicit photos and a video of the victim that were on the laptop in a password protected folder. One of those photos was sent to the victim with a demand for $3,000 to prevent all of the photos and video being sent to her friends, co-workers and family as well as “every porn site available.”

The defendant created a Facebook account as “Payme ForSilence” and eventually posted a number of nude pictures and sex video of the victim and her boyfriend on the Facebook account. The FBI was able to get the Facebook account closed. Latimore and possibly others also continued to harass the victim via e-mail, demanding money to prevent his wider distribution of the material.

Latimore was charged by information and pleaded guilty on July 8, 2015 to the one count of the computer extortion involving the confidential pictures and video.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by the FBI and Newark Division of Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Deborah Solove, who is representing the United States in this case.

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