A California man pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and aggravated identity theft after gaining unauthorized access to young women's social media accounts, including accounts belonging to three victims in western New York.
Max Chen, 31, of San Jose, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr., according to a U.S. Attorney's Office release. The offenses carry a combined maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The plea agreement describes conduct from March 2021 through June 18, 2023. Chen compromised at least 200 social media accounts belonging to victims in the Western District of New York and elsewhere, prosecutors said.
After accessing accounts, he searched for sexually explicit photographs and downloaded them. He then used the material to harass or pressure victims, according to the agreement.
Prosecutors described several methods: sending a victim her own photographs to show he had accessed the account, posting images publicly on her profile, sending sexually demeaning or violent messages, and demanding additional explicit material in exchange for removing images from the internet.
Chen directly contacted more than 200 young women whose images he had obtained. Prosecutors said he typically sent demeaning or violent messages and sent more than 50 women explicit images of themselves.
He possessed hundreds of thousands of explicit images and videos depicting more than 6,000 young women, the release said.
A separate charge of attempted production of child pornography remains pending in the Central District of California.
The FBI investigated. Sentencing in the western New York case will be scheduled later.
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