Kokomo man sentenced to 35 years for sextortion scheme

Tyler Juranovich, Kokomo Tribune, Ind.
·4 min read

Apr. 22—A Kokomo man will spend the next few decades in jail after conducting a sextortion scheme.

Bradley M. Cox, 30, was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in Fort Wayne. Cox was convicted last December on charges related to sexual exploitation of children, extortion and production and attempted production of child pornography and receipt of child pornography. His sentence also includes 20 years of supervised release.

"Mr. Cox thought he could hide behind the anonymity of the internet to terrorize his young victims, causing them untold mental anguish, but this sentence is a clear message that those who engage in sextortion will be held accountable for their heinous actions," FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan said in a statement. "The FBI and our partners are dedicated to rooting out these perpetrators and ensuring they can never impose such terror on their victims and their families ever again."

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Cox initially posed as a modeling recruiter to obtain nude photographs of a woman. He then communicated with a Rochester man, obtaining nude photos of the man.

Eventually, investigators say, Cox threatened to publicly release the Rochester man's nude photos unless the man gave Cox the login to his Facebook account, where he found "thousands" of nude pictures of women and girls in Facebook Messenger.

Later, Cox gained access to a Facebook account that belonged to a juvenile — only described as "Q.S" in court documents — and then sent multiple females their nude photos he had found on the Rochester man's Facebook account, posing as Q.S. and threatening to publish them online unless they sent more nude photos and videos.

According to investigators, at least two of the victims were high school girls at the time and when victims refused Cox's demands, Cox posted their nude pictures to a pornographic website.

One of his victims was then a 15-year-old girl from Marion who sent Cox multiple nude photos and videos at his request. The victim later told investigators that she thought she was talking to Q.S. and complied with Cox's requests because she feared he would publicly distribute her nude photos if she didn't send him more.

When interviewed by police, Cox said he was a "collector" who "liked to look at women." He said he never asked for money because it was "too traceable." Investigators found hundreds of images that had been sent between December 2017 and April 2018 between Cox and the Marion girl.

The investigation began in December 2017 when the Fulton County Sheriff's Department and police departments in Rochester and Peru received a complaint that someone was trying to extort people through an online scheme.

Investigators subpoenaed to get one of the IP addresses of the person using Q.S.'s Facebook account, but it came back to the German virtual private network provider Anonymox. VPNs are a tool that have exploded in popularity and are used by consumers to hide their IP address, give the user some sense of anonymity online and make it seem like they're accessing a website or app from somewhere they're not. It's commonly used to access international versions of streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu, but, in some cases, used to try and hide illegal activity.

According to court documents, investigators also acquired a subpoena to get the IP address and personal information of a user of the app Pinger, a cross-platform for texting and voice over internet (VoIP) phone calls. Cox, according to investigators, had used the app to text Q.S. and threaten him after compromising his Facebook account.

The subpoena revealed that IP addresses tied to the Pinger account belonged to devices located at a construction company where Cox worked in Macy. Cox would later tell investigators that he was unable to connect to the VPN and hide his work computer's IP address when using Pinger, according to court documents.

Federal agents were granted permission to search Cox's work computer by the owner of the construction company. According to court documents, agents found a message from Anonymox warning Cox that he had gone over his traffic usage allotment and username and password information of the Facebook accounts he compromised.

In a subsequent interview with investigators, Cox admitted to the scheme and showed federal agents his Mega cloud storage account where he stored the nude photos of his victims, including the 15-year-old Marion girl, according to court documents.

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich

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