INDIANAPOLIS - Investigators are trying to identify hundreds of potential victims whose images were found on the computer of an Indiana man charged with coercing teenage boys into performing online sex acts.
US Attorney Joe Hogsett said during a Monday news conference that the “sextortion’’ case against Richard Leon Finkbiner could become the largest of its kind in the United States to date.
Finkbiner, 39, was arrested Friday at his home in the Clay County community of Brazil and faces two preliminary counts of sexually exploiting a child. He remained in custody Monday and has a detention hearing Wednesday.
Court records indicated he did not have a lawyer.
During questioning by FBI agents, Finkbiner estimated that he had coerced at least 100 young people into making explicit videos, according to documents filed in US District Court in Terre Haute. He is accused of threatening to post on gay porn sites compromising videos he secretly made of the victims.
Hogsett said investigators found thousands of explicit images on Finkbiner’s hard drive, mostly of teenage boys. “We are fearful that it could involve hundreds of individuals not just here in Indiana but across the country,’’ he said.
Authorities released a mug shot of him Monday, hoping that other potential victims will come forward.
“Mr. Finkbiner has focused his attention on what appear to be young men between the ages of 14 to 16,’’ Hogsett said.
The preliminary charges pertain to Finkbiner’s alleged extortion of two 14-year-old boys, one in Maryland and the other in Michigan.
Prosecutors say he surreptitiously recorded videos of the boys exposing themselves on webcam chat sites and threatened to post them, and the boys’ identities, on gay porn sites unless the boys performed sexual acts for him via webcam.
“So u wanna play or b a famous gay porn star?’’ he allegedly asked the Michigan boy.
The boy told Finkbiner he was underage and pleaded with him to delete the recording, the complaint says. “u know that I under age and that is against the law and u could be arrested for this.’’
But the complaint says Finkbiner responded: “yes it is illegal im ok with that. . . . I won’t get caught im a hacker I covered my tracks.’’
He's not working for the FBI, is he?
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"International child porn operation busted" Associated Press, June 08, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS - Investigators have busted a child pornography ring spread across the United States and Europe that produced and distributed sexually explicit images of babies and toddlers online, federal prosecutors in Indianapolis said Thursday.
Seven American men have been convicted and sentenced on various charges in the case, including three who were sentenced in federal court in Indianapolis on Wednesday, the US attorney’s office said. Two more who pleaded guilty are awaiting sentencing.
“This operation uncovered a dangerous and depraved group
of criminals who were devoted to trading sexually explicit images of
children under the age of five,’’ Assistant US Attorney General Larry
Breuer said in a statement.
First Assistant US Attorney Josh Minkler said at an Indianapolis news conference that more than two dozen children in Indiana and elsewhere were abused in the production of the pornography.
“Children who far too often weren’t old enough to comprehend the crimes committed against them,’’ Minkler said.
Some of the suspects had legal custody of their victims, and those children have been removed, prosecutors said.
The “most prolific producer of child pornography’’ in the group was 26-year-old David Bostic, Assistant US Attorney Brant Cook said.
Bostic persuaded parents to allow him to baby-sit and, thus entrusted, abused the children without their knowledge, Assistant US Attorney Steve DeBrota said. He was arrested in November 2010.
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"US charges Ukrainian in child porn distribution ring" June 12, 2012
NEWARK - A Ukrainian man has been charged in the most significant distribution ring of child pornography ever investigated in the United States, federal authorities in New Jersey said Monday.
The US attorney’s office said Maksym Shynkarenko, 33, from Kharkov, Ukraine, founded and operated a child pornography website in the Ukraine that had customers around the world and has resulted in 560 convictions throughout the United States alone.
Authorities extradited Shynkarenko over the weekend from Thailand, where he had been in custody since his 2009 arrest during a vacation to that country....
Prosecutors say Shynkarenko and two coconspirators from the Ukraine and one from Russia advertised and operated numerous child porn websites and sold access to them to clients worldwide, including customers in New Jersey. They allegedly concealed the charges with innocuous business names, such as Ad Soft, which served as fronts to conceal them from credit card companies....
The notorious hub of the real mafia, readers.
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"Hostage taker dies after long standoff
VALPARAISO - A Texas man who took hostages in a northwestern Indiana realty office and held police at bay for several hours suffered three gunshot wounds before dying, likely from two different weapons, a coroner said Saturday. Roy L. Ferguson, 48, of Fulshear, Texas, died at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Coroner Chuck Harris said. That was two hours after the end of the nearly seven-hour standoff at Prudential Executive Group Real Estate office in Valparaiso (AP)."
The cops killed him?
"Relative accused in killing of couple
MISHAWAKA - An Indiana man has been charged with murder in the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law, who authorities say were fatally shot in their home while their children listened. The St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office filed two murder charges and a weapons charge Saturday against 41-year-old Steven Clippenger of South Bend, who is being held without bond. Authorities also charged a woman they said was Clippenger’s accomplice (AP)."
Also see: The Kid Killers of Indiana
Fellow officer’s death in Indianapolis leaves Rutland police devastated
