'Sextortion" Prison Terms Announced For California Men Guilty In Blackmailing Scheme

Reuters reports two California men, Tyler Schrier, 23, and Keith James Hudson, 39, pleaded guilty on Monday to a "sextortion" scheme to swindle professional poker player, Joe Sobek, and others. 

Prosecutors contend the pair hacked into Sobek's email account and found naked pictures, which they used as leverage in a "sextortion" blackmailing scam. 

In the fall of 2010, after finding the pictures of Sobek, they attempted to extract money from him by threatening to post the embarrassing photos and intimate emails online. If Sobek, and other victims like him, didn't pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars, the photos and emails would be shared on the Internet, exposing private and personal information to the world.

During a sentencing hearing for the two men in U.S. District Court, Sobek said that he and other victims had watched their lives "altered and shattered in irreparable ways," by the "sextortion" plot which threatened Sobek's ability to make a living as a professional poker player. 

According to U.S. Attorney's Spokesman, Thom Mrozek, Sebok said of the incident:

"In short, I was no longer able to maintain my then-current level of participation in the poker industry, representing the brands that I had been previously, as well as greatly destroying my ability to do so with new companies moving forward. Without belaboring the point too much, it was a nightmare, and one that I was forced to live through with millions of people watching"

The rest of those involved in the "sextortion" scheme were only identified by their initials in court documents, and none of them gave in and paid the "sextortion" pair. 

Hudson was sentenced to two years in prison following his guilty plea to unauthorized access to a protected computer for purposes of financial gain. If the case had gone to trial, Hudson would have faced a five year sentence behind bars. Schrier was sentenced to 42 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy, extortion ("sextortion" sounds better) and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Schrier had faced a maximum sentence of 17 years if he'd been convicted at a trial. 

A third defendant, Ryder Finney, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in connection with the "sextortion" scheme and will be sentenced later this year in federal courthouse in Philadelphia.