Admin l Saturday, December 21, 2019
VIRGINIA, U.S – Satyasurya Thumma based in the United States who stalked his former girlfriend from Virginia, threatening to release her nude photographs online has been sentenced to more than six months in prison.
Thumma was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to cyber stalking, unauthorized access to a computer, and aggravated identity theft charges in July. In November, he was sentenced to more than six years in prison.
The story started in November 2018 when the Virginia woman broke off her romantic relationship, with Thumma, what followed was anonymous messages with threats to release her nude photos if she refused to pay him some money.
At first, she believed her ex-boyfriend, Satyasurya Thumma, had been hacked. But the investigation showed that the anonymous messages w ere coming from Thumma himself.
According to the FBI, Thumma did not handle rejection well, and he lashed out in a prolonged way,” said Special Agent Michael Willis, who investigated the case out of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, along with Special Agent Jeremy Derrico. “He either didn’t accept the rejection, or he did and wanted revenge”, he said hence his result to stalking.
Thumma, according to FBI sent the victims two nude pictures of herself— the nude photos she had sent to Thumma during the relationship—and demanded money so that he will not release the pictures to close family members.
He repeatedly sent anonymous text messages to her telling her to check her email, where she would find threatening message such as, “I dnt think ur parents wanna see ur nudes.” He even told the victim he’d been kidnapped and wouldn’t be released without her sending money.
“When the victim didn’t comply, Thumma began sending her violent images and threatening messages. He then demanded $25,000 to not release her nude images to her church. After she did not provide the money, Thumma logged into the victim’s social media accounts and sent her nude photos to her contact list.
“The contact list he sent her nude pictures to included her family members and members of her church. Thumma also sent the images to the victim’s father’s employer and threatened to send them to her mother’s workplace as well”, as well, the FBI said.
The most gory part took place when Thumma had a car accident. “He took a picture of himself lying in the hospital bed, appearing to be unconscious. He sent it to the victim and her mother with a text message that said, “Ur next.”
During the investigation, agents found another victim who had experienced a similar situation—being harassed and having her nude photos released by Thumma after breaking up with him. Willis credits the victim’s bravery in coming forward and talking about a traumatic, personal experience with the success of the case.
“I’m sure it was very hard for her to tell a stranger these embarrassing and painful things that happened to her,” Willis said. “But the fact is, the only way to stop it was to step forward and ask for help. I give the victim and her mother a lot of credit for coming forward and being so helpful in our investigation”, Special Agent Michael Willis said.
