A man from Virginia was sentenced to 31 years in prison after an FBI investigation into his act of extorting teenagers across the United States for sexually explicit images via social media, according to a Department of Justice press release.
The 36-year-old man of Warrenton, Virginia, Filippo Parlagreco obtained this 31-year prison sentence for his extortion scheme that involved the sexual exploitation of at least 13 minors across the nation and was additionally sentenced to “a lifetime of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution to the victims,” according to the Department of Justice press release.
Parlagreco made social media accounts posing as a teenage girl and asked other teenage girls and minors across the country for sexually explicit images of themselves, according to the Department of Justice press release.
In one incident, Parlagreco persuaded a 14-year-old girl to send him sexually explicit images of herself, which he then posted to social media and threatened that he would keep the images up on social media unless she sent him more similar photographs of herself, according to the Department of Justice press release.
Parlagreco pleaded guilty to production, distribution, and possession of child pornography on November 5, 2020, according to the Department of Justice press release. (RELATED: ‘All I Want Is To Continue To Be Your Child Molestor’: 33-Year-Old Arrested For Sex With Minor)
This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and other federal agencies in Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division reiterated the dangers that predators like Parlegreco pose to children on social media where they can take on any identity.
“This case demonstrates the grave dangers that children face online, where predators can pretend to be anyone and use sophisticated tactics to exploit the most vulnerable among us.”