Two of seven defendants who were indicted by a federal grand jury for orchestrating a scheme to access and sell sexually explicit content from social media pleaded guilty this week to their respective charges. They appeared to be the ringleaders in this scheme that prosecutors said included victims who were minors.
Charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, fraud in connection with unlawful computer access, aggravated identity theft, and receipt and possession of child sexual abuse material are the charges the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Pennsylvania filed in a 16-count indictment against Richard Martz Jr. of Meadville, Dylan Miller of West Mifflin, Christopher Clampitt of North Carolina, Edward Grabb of Jeanette, Michael Yackovich of West Newton, Luke Swinehart of Lock Haven, and Karlin Jones of Beaver Falls.
Martz and Miller just acknowledged the crimes they committed, pleading guilty in the case.
PNC Bank confirmed to KDKA that Miller was a former employee, and the Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Grabb was previously a part-time deputy in a limited capacity for a short time period.
Prosecutors said between March 2020 and October 2022, the co-defendants conspired to hack into hundreds of Snapchat accounts to access sexually explicit images and videos of account holders, some of whom were minors.
They hacked the accounts in various ways, and once they got ahold of the material, prosecutors said the defendants copied and saved the material to their own devices and remote storage accounts, before sharing and exploiting the content with each other and others online.
All the while, the account holders subject in the content were not aware this was happening.
The FBI said they weren’t just sharing these images and videos, but selling and trading them for profit, re-victimizing the victims several times over.
A PNC spokesperson released the following statement to KDKA:
“We are aware of a legal proceeding involving a former employee, and due to the ongoing nature of the matter, we are unable to offer additional information at this time. The security of our clients’ information is our top priority, and we have sophisticated protections in place to safeguard customer data.”
Both Martz and Miller will now be required to register as sex offenders. They remain out on bond until their sentencing hearings on Sept. 16.
KDKA reached out to Snapchat for comment but has not heard back at this time.
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