Indiana Man Charged With 'Sextortion'

Richard Finkbiner befriended teenage boys online: FBI
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2012 3:45 PM CDT
Indiana Man Charged With 'Sextortion'
Richard Leon Finkbiner, 39, of Brazil. Ind., has been charged with sexually exploiting teenage boys online.   (US Justice Dept.)

The FBI has arrested an Indiana man who allegedly blackmailed 14-year-old boys into uploading sexually explicit images and videos of themselves, MSNBC reports. According to chilling court documents, Richard Leon Finkbiner, 39, befriended the boys online and enticed them into uploading the explicit material. He then threatened to show it to friends or family if they wouldn't upload more. Worse, evidence on Finkbiner's computer suggests "several hundred" other victims of roughly the same age.

"Only I have this link," he reportedly wrote one victim. "You want to play this game or you want to be a gay porn star?" Another message allegedly reads, "yes it is illegal im ok with that ... if u don't play I promise ill f*** ur life over." One boy wrote back: "All I ask you for is to delete it please im onlyh 14 please just to this to somebody else not me please." Now held pending a hearing in Terre Haute, Finkbiner faces a possible 30 years in federal prison. (More sexual abuse stories.)

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