A Peruvian national was sentenced to six
months in prison for demanding nude photographs and cash from a South American
woman after she ended their online relationship, announced Steven Martinez,
Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, and André
Birotte. Jr., United States Attorney in Los Angeles.
Jose Marcial Garcia-Hernandez, 43, a
Peruvian national who last resided in Panorama City, was sentenced today to six
months in prison by U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright, II.
On December 7, 2011, Garcia-Hernandez
was taken into custody at his residence in Panorama City and charged in a
criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Garcia-Hernandez was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on
December 20, 2011 with 48 counts of extortion. On February 15, 2012,
Garcia-Hernandez pleaded guilty to two counts of extortion and admitted that he
had sent a series of extortionate and threatening communications via the
Internet to the victim, a Peruvian national residing in Peru. In those
communications, sent from approximately September 2010 through January 2011,
Garcia-Hernandez demanded that the victim continue posing nude for him via her
webcam, and if she chose not to, he threatened to disseminate previously obtained
nude images of the victim to the victim’s family and friends and to publicly
post such images on the Internet. At one point, Garcia-Hernandez told the
victim that she must pay him $2,000 if she wanted to stop communicating with
and posing nude for him. Ultimately, Garcia-Hernandez carried out his threat
and did send sexually explicit images of the victim to individuals with whom
she was acquainted.
The FBI investigation was initiated when
the victim reported the activity to the Peruvian National Police (PNP). Because
the activity was initiated in Los Angeles, the PNP reported the activity to the
FBI.
This case was investigated by the FBI in
Los Angeles; the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Santiago, Chile; and the PNP.
This case was prosecuted by the United
States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
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