Defendant
Now Charged with Exploiting at Least 12 Male and Female Children, Investigation
Continues into Hundreds of Additional Potential Victims
INDIANAPOLIS—On April 6, 2012, Richard
L. Finkbiner, 39, of Brazil, Indiana, was arrested by federal authorities after
being charged with the sexual exploitation of two minors by inducing and
coercing them into sexually explicit activity online. In serving the search
warrant at Finkbiner’s Clay County, Indiana home, the FBI uncovered thousands
of sexually explicit images and videos depicting hundreds of possible victims.
After three months of forensic analysis
and investigation, U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Hogsett announced today that
Finkbiner now faces additional charges related to his alleged “sextortion”
scheme. In a formal information filed this morning, federal prosecutors allege
that they have located and identified 10 additional male and female minor
victims across the country, and Finkbiner now faces a total of 10 counts of
sexual exploitation of children, two counts of extortion, and one count of
possession of child pornography.
“These charges formalize allegations of
a systematic scheme to victimize hundreds of children and teenagers all over
the country,” said Hogsett. “Thanks to the tireless work of investigators, over
the last three months we have been able to identify and contact many victims of
these alleged acts. This process is ongoing, and we continue to do all we can
to offer support after the nightmare they are alleged to have endured.”
The information charges Finkbiner with
the sexual exploitation of nine boys and one girl. Victims were located in the
following states: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New York, Ohio,
West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 17.
Finkbiner is charged with extorting two
additional female victims: Jane Doe 2, 16 years old, of Anchorage, Alaska; and
Jane Doe 3, 14 years old, of St. Peters, Minnesota. Finkbiner is alleged to
have threatened them with the distribution of sexually suggestive and/or
partially nude images. Finkbiner is also charged with possession of child
pornography, both for possessing the images he captured from the charged sexual
exploitation victims, as well as an alleged collection of child pornography gathered
from the Internet.
The formal charges filed in federal
court describe a complex and systematic criminal scheme. 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. 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 12 minor victims named above.
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.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Zachary A. Myers and A. Brant Cook, who are prosecuting the case for the
government, investigators continue to process and examine the thousands of
images and videos seized during the execution of the April search warrant. Finkbiner
faces a maximum of 30 years in prison for each count of sexual exploitation of
children, a maximum of two years in prison for each count of extortion, and a
maximum of 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography. Finkbiner
also faces a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the charged offenses.
An initial hearing will be scheduled in
Terre Haute, before a U.S. Magistrate Judge. Finkbiner has been in the custody
of the United States Marshals Service since his arrest on April 6, 2012, and the
court has already ordered him to be detained until his trial.
These formal charges follow an extensive
collaborative investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Oakland
County, Michigan Sheriff’s Department; and the Prince George’s County, Maryland
Police Department; with significant assistance from the Indiana State Police,
the Clay County Sheriff’s Department, the Terre Haute Police Department, and
the Kokomo Police Department.
This case was brought as part of the
U.S. Attorney’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the
growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by
the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the
Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project
Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate,
apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as
well as to identify and rescue victims. For more on Project Safe Childhood,
visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov
An information is only a charge and is
not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a
fair trial at which the government must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Posts
