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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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‘Sextortionist’ Gets|5 Years in Slammer

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A Glendale man on Monday was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison for hacking into women's computers and coercing them to show him their naked bodies.

Karen "Gary" Kazaryan, 27, pleaded guilty in July to felony counts of computer hacking and aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge George King called him a "cyber-terrorist" at his sentencing.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, prosecutors, who sought a 6-year term, wrote in the sentencing recommendation: "Kazaryan is a sexual cyber terrorist. He hacked into hundreds of victims' email, Facebook, and Skype accounts using their usernames and passwords or password reset questions. He then methodically searched their accounts for naked pictures, passwords, and the contact information of their friends. He had two goals every time that he accessed these accounts: get more naked pictures in any way he could, and get more victims."

If his victims refused to send him more naked photos, he posted the photos he had on the Internet.

He hacked into hundreds of computers, prosecutors said.

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