SAN DIEGO (CN) — An Argentine man who preyed on the deep pockets of lovelorn people who hired him to cast love spells, only to be extorted for thousands of dollars, was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison.
Ariel Boiteux’s international extortion scheme involved requesting his victims seeking romance to record videos of themselves engaged in sexually explicit rituals and send him the videos to use in “casting love spells.”
Then he threatened to post the videos on social media unless the clients paid large sums of money, federal prosecutors said.
“This was a despicable scheme that preyed upon people who put their trust in a phony,” U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer said in a statement. “This defendant used the vulnerability of the lovelorn to humiliate and extort them, and for that he will pay a price.”
Operating out of Paraguay since at least July 2015 with several associates, Boiteux advertised the witchcraft services of his business “Amarres Inmediatos” on social media, including Facebook, Instagram and Argentine e-commerce site MercadoLibre. The promised services included casting spells to foster romantic relationships.
Upon contacting Boiteux for his services, clients learned the rituals were performed remotely and they were told to purchase certain items including candles, alcohol, vegetables and photographs. Clients were told to drink alcohol, recite sexually explicit incantations and perform sexual acts on camera.
Boiteux then threatened to publicize the sexually explicit recordings unless a client paid an amount that far exceeded the initial agreed-upon price. In some instances, Boiteux did post the photos and videos publicly and left them up on public sites unless and until clients paid the money he demanded, according to the indictment.
He also sold the recordings to people involved in commercial production and distribution of porn and sexually explicit material and threatened to sell the materials to tabloid magazines, according to the indictment.
According to his plea agreement, Boiteux researched clients to see who would be susceptible to extortion.
In one instance, Boiteux threatened a well-connected public figure who had access to significant financial resources by demanding more than $250,000 after obtaining sensitive recordings of the woman.
Boiteux was nabbed when a cybercrime undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations called a phone number on the Amarres Inmediatos website and offered to buy recordings of a victim, which had already been partially uploaded to public websites in an extortion attempt.
After agreeing to sell the recordings for thousands of dollars, Boiteux instructed the undercover agent to send a money transfer through Western Union.
Paraguayan law enforcement officers waited at the Western Union in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, for Boiteux to pick up the money transfer, where he was arrested.
Boiteux was extradited to San Diego in July 2018.
Follow @@BiancaDBruno
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
