Anchorage, Alaska - Acting U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder announced that Michael Thomas McTigue, 33, resident of Wasilla, Alaska, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason to two years in prison, to be followed by a one-year term of supervised release, for making threats online and extorting money in return.
According to documents filed in this case, the defendant trolled women he met online through the Meetme.com and Kik Messenger applications. In several instances, the defendant formed online romantic relationships with women, and received sexually explicit photographs from them. On at least one occasion, the defendant then took the photographs that he received and threatened to publish them unless the victim worked for him as a prostitute and sent to him some of the money that she earned. The defendant went so far as to post online prostitution advertisements for the victim. In response to this threat, the victim complied, sending the defendant more than $1,000.
During the investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located two other women who had sent money to the defendant. In addition, the FBI located three other women for whom the defendant has posted online prostitution advertisements.
The case was the product of an investigation by the FBI’s Safe Streets/Crimes Against Children/Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children through sex trafficking, as well as to identify and recover victims. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Reardon prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
