Minn. man sentenced 38 years in ‘sextortion’ scheme

The Washington Post

The Midwestern teenager was 15 years old when a modeling agency manager calling herself Courtney Jansgen reached out to him on social media with an enticing offer. Send me nude photos, the attractive woman said, and I’ll get you a $1,000 modeling gig. The teenager obliged. It was only after it was too late that he learned the truth about his would-be employer: Courtney Jansgen was in fact Anton Martynenko, a man twice his age from Eagan, Minn., preying on his adolescent impulses.

In subsequent message, Martynenko offered the teenager $300 to perform oral sex. When he refused, the nude images “spread like wildfire” on social media, as reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which covered statements the teen made in court last week.

The ordeal happened in 2012, and the teen was just one victim in a massive “sextortion” scheme prosecutors are calling the largest child pornography case ever handled in Minnesota.

Over four years, prosecutors say, Martynenko posed as young women on social media and duped at least 155 teen boys, most of them high school athletes from the Midwest, into sending him nude photos and videos. When his victims refused his requests for more — or in some cases, turned down sexual advances — he would share the images online, court records show.

Prosecutors said Martynenko coerced at least three teens into sexual acts with him, and two of them later killed themselves, according to the Star Tribune.

Now, Martynenko’s punishment is set to begin. After pleading guilty in January to federal child pornography charges, the 32-year-old last week was sentenced to 38 years in prison for his crimes. A judge cut two years from his sentence for cooperating with investigators in an unrelated homicide and child pornography case, according to KMSP.

Federal officials and child advocates have raised alarms about sex-related extortion against children in recent months, saying they’ve seen a rise in schemes like Martynenko’s.