By Michael Winter, USA TODAY
5:01 PM
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In April, Richard L. Finkbiner, 39, of Brazil, in Clay County, was arrested and charged with coercing two teenage boys to make sexually explicit videos online, the Indianapolis Star says. Today, U.S. Attorney Joseph Hogsett charged Finkbiner with sexually exploiting nine other boys and one girl ranging in age from 12 to 17, beginning in March 2011.Additionally, Finkbiner was charged with extorting two other teenage girls -- a 16-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, and a 14-year-old from St. Peters, Minn. -- after he allegedly threatened to distribute sexually suggestive and/or partially nude images of the girls if they did not cooperate, the news release states.
He was also charged with one count of possessing child pornography. The FBI said a search of his home turned up "thousands of sexually explicit images and videos depicting hundreds of possible victims."
The Justice Department says he found anonymous video-chat site such as Omegle.com.
The 10-count indictment for sexual exploitation of children identifies all alleged victims as John or Jane Doe. The nine boys were 12 to 16 years old and lived in the following cities: Avon, Ind.; Sissonville, W. Va.; Dubuque, Iowa; River Falls, Wis.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Hamlin, N.Y.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Fairview Heights, Ill., and Fort Collins, Colo.
The girl was from Cincinnati.
Here's what the Justice Department says happened:
Finkbiner is alleged to have used the Internet to prey upon children and teens from across the country, including locations as widespread as Avon, Indiana, all the way to Anchorage, Alaska. For more than a year, Finkbiner allegedly extorted and saved visual depictions of hundreds of individuals engaged in sexually explicit or sexually suggestive conduct, including the twelve minor victims named above.No date has been set for Finkbiner's initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Terre Haute, says the Star, published by USA TODAY's parent, Gannett.
The three month forensic investigation has provided additional details into the scheme allegedly used by Finkbiner. According to the Information, Finkbiner used Omegle.com, as well as other anonymous video chat websites, to locate children on the internet. The information alleges that he then utilized "fake webcam" software to display pornographic videos of adults and of children to his victims, which Finkbiner claimed to be live feeds from his webcam.
While displaying these videos to his chat partners, Finkbiner would allegedly then induce these victims to engage in sexually explicit or suggestive activity themselves, which he secretly recorded. The Information then alleges that Finkbiner would confront his chat partners with the videos of their activities, threatening to publish the videos to pornographic websites or send them to the victims' friends, family and school teachers unless they became his "cam slaves" and engaged in additional sexually explicit activity, which Finkbiner also recorded.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum 30 years in prison for each count of sexual exploitation, up to two years for each extortion count and 10 years for the child pornography charge.