New Delhi: An Instagram or Facebook follow request, followed by sexually explicit texts and requests to “show genitals” on video calls, is how a 40-year-old Canadian man of Indian origin tracked and trapped scores of minors across Canada and the US.
Ramanan Pathmanathan of Toronto was sentenced Wednesday by a US District Court to 33 years in federal prison in connection with a “prolific sextortion scheme” that targeted more than 100 children across America, said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
The Toronto man, according to the indictment, pleaded guilty 30 January before the court of chief judge James E. Boasberg to under sections related to production of child pornography and coercion and enticement of a minor.
The document—accessed by The Print—said that the jury had heard the cases of 12 victims, all minors, who had been abused from 2018 to 2021. The victims were spread across the states of Texas, New Jersey, Idaho, Indiana, Texas, Washington, Ohio, North Carolina and Rhode Island.
Canadian Sentenced in D.C. to 33 Years in Prison for Sextortion Scheme that Targeted 145 Children in the U.S.https://t.co/c3USidP40Y
— U.S. Department of Justice – International (@USDOJ_Intl) May 27, 2026
The investigators told the court that the 40-year-old would first target minors on Instagram and Facebook, then speak to them over direct messages.
“Pathmanathan used multiple social media accounts, primarily Instagram and Facebook Messenger, to establish contact with at least 145 young girls and boys,” officials are quoted as saying in court documents.
From March 2014 to the day of his arrest 10 March 2021, Pathmanathan posed as a teenage boy from New Jersey and demanded his victims engage in sexually explicit conduct while they participated in video chats with him.
“He directed them to expose their genitals, and to engage in sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives. In almost all the video chats with his minor victims, Pathmanathan sent the children images of adults engaged in sexual acts to show them how to do what he was requesting,” one of the officials said.
He would then record the sexually explicit conduct and save the files on his desktop computer.
Officials informed the court that some of the victims were as young as six years old. “When the minor victims would decline to continue to engage in sexually explicit conduct or blocked Pathmanathan’s social media accounts, he threatened to send images to the children’s friends or family,” they said.
After hearing the matter, US Attorney Pirro said that Pathmanathan for years was “methodically hunting children online”. “He targeted more than 145 victims, some as young as six, and subjected them to horrors no child should ever experience. The United States will not allow international borders to serve as a refuge for those who prey on children, and I am grateful to our Canadian partners for ensuring this predator faced justice on both sides of the border,” Pirro said.
Apart from 33 years of jail to Pathmanathan, the judge Wednesday also handed 10 years of supervised release. He was also to be registered as a sex offender. “The prison term will run consecutively to the 12-year sentence that Pathmanathan is serving in Canada.,” the document read.
Pathmanathan had pleaded guilty to similar offenses in Canada on 27 October, 2022, where he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Alongside his arrest, the police had seized an USB drive, laptop, desktop, a cellular phone, and a gaming console.
(Edited by Tony Rai)