Canadian Man Sentenced to 33 Years for Sextortion Scheme Targeting Over 145 Children
A Canadian man has been sentenced to 33 years in prison after pleading guilty to a massive sextortion scheme. The perpetrator targeted over 145 children in the United States, some as young as six years old, over an eight-year period.
**Ramanan Pathmanathan**, 40, pleaded guilty on January 30, 2026, to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor and one count of child pornography production. The case highlights the devastating impact of online exploitation and the long arm of the law in pursuing perpetrators across borders.
### The Sentence and Prior Convictions
Besides the 33-year sentence, **Pathmanathan** must also register as a sex offender and serve 10 years of supervised release. This sentence follows a 12-year prison term he is already serving in Canada after a 2022 guilty plea for similar offenses.
### Details of the Sextortion Scheme
Sextortion involves cybercriminals threatening to publicly leak explicit images and videos acquired through coercion or theft. In **Pathmanathan**'s case, court documents reveal he used multiple **Instagram** and **Facebook Messenger** accounts to record victims engaging in sexual acts.
Between March 2014 and his arrest on March 10, 2021, **Pathmanathan** contacted at least 145 young victims while posing as a teenage boy from New Jersey. He demanded victims engage in sexually explicit conduct via video chat and threatened to send recordings to their friends and family if they refused or blocked his accounts.
### Disturbing Details Revealed in Court
"**Pathmanathan** demanded the minor victims engage in sexually explicit conduct while they participated in video chats with him. He directed them to expose their genitals, and to engage in sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives. In almost all the video chats with his minor victims, **Pathmanathan** sent the children images of adults engaged in sexual acts to show them how to do what he was requesting," the Justice Department said in a statement.
He recorded his victims' sexually explicit conduct and saved the files on his desktop computer. Some of the victims were as young as six years old. When the minor victims declined to continue or blocked **Pathmanathan**'s accounts, he threatened to send images to their friends or family.
### FBI Warning and Recommendations
In September 2021, the **FBI** warned of a massive increase in sextortion complaints and advised those receiving such threats to immediately stop all interaction with the criminals, contact law enforcement, and file a complaint as soon as possible.
