by Christian K. Caruzo
U.S. courts sentenced 40 year-old Canadian national Ramanan Pathmanathan to 33 years in federal prison for his role in a harrowing, years-long sexual extortion scheme that targeted more than 100 children in the United States, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced on Wednesday.
Between 2014 and up until his arrest on March 10, 2021, Pathmanathan, a resident of Toronto, used multiple social media accounts to prey on at least 145 minor girls and boys — some as early as six years old — in what Pirro described in an official statement as a “prolific sextortion scheme” that subjected minors to horrors no child should ever experience.
Pathmanathan, posing as a purported teenage boy from New Jersey, demanded that his victims engage in sexually explicit conduct through video chat — going as far as to demand that his victims engage in sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives.
The child predator would sent sexually explicit images to his victims, and then record the victim’s sexually explicit conducts, saving the footage on his computer. Victims who refused to continue complying with his sexually explicit demands or blocked Pathmanathan’s social media accounts would then be extorted by Pathmanathan, who threatened the victims with having the images sent to their friends and family.