Canadian man, who posed as New Jersey teen to sexually exploit over 145 US children, sentenced for 33 years

A Canadian man was sentenced today in the U.S. District Court to 33 years in federal prison in connection with a “prolific sextortion scheme” that targeted more than 100 children across the United States, according to a press release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, pleaded guilty in January 2026 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, the release stated. He is already serving a 12-year prison sentence in Canada.

“This defendant spent years methodically hunting children online. He targeted more than 145 victims, some as young as six, and subjected them to horrors no child should ever experience,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement. “The United States will not allow international borders to serve as a refuge for those who prey on children, and I am grateful to our Canadian partners for ensuring this predator faced justice on both sides of the border.”

Pathmanathan used social media to contact young children

Pathmanathan used multiple social media accounts, primarily Instagram and Facebook Messenger, to establish contact with at least 145 young girls and boys. Between at least March 2014 up until the day of his arrest on March 10, 2021, Pathmanathan posed as a teenage boy from New Jersey, the release said, citing court documents. According to PEOPLE, he identified himself as Brett.

After establishing contact, he “demanded the minor victims engage in sexually explicit conduct while they participated in video chats with him,” according to the release. “He directed them to expose their genitals, and to engage in sexual acts with dogs, siblings, and other relatives. In almost all the video chats with his minor victims, Pathmanathan sent the children images of adults engaged in sexual acts to show them how to do what he was requesting.”

Pathmanathan allegedly recorded what the children did and saved the files on his computer. “When the minor victims would decline to continue to engage in sexually explicit conduct or blocked Pathmanathan’s social media accounts, he threatened to send images to the children’s friends or family,” the release further stated.

The massive sextortion scheme lasted seven years until his arrest in March of 2021, prosecutors said. The investigation into the matter was launched after the mother of a minor victim contacted law enforcement about “someone who was relentlessly stalking her minor daughter on social media and forcing her to engage in sexually explicit acts via live stream,” according to a prosecutor's sentencing memorandum obtained by PEOPLE. Investigators traced the IP address to Pathmanathan, who was living with his parents and brother in Toronto.

Pathmanathan denied having sexual interest in children

The memorandum further stated that Pathmanathan denied having a sexual interest in children. He, however, admitted that he used the Dark Web to access “violent and graphic content, including videos depicting beheadings. He also stated that he liked watching ‘incest stuff with brothers and sisters.'”

His defence attorneys in their own sentencing memorandum wrote that Pathmanathan, who was originally from Sri Lanka, had dropped out of university in Canada to play poker full time. He was successful at first but started losing and “became more and more reckless with his gambling.”

“By the time he was 30 years old, Mr. Pathmanathan was living his life almost entirely online,” the defendant’s memorandum stated, as quoted by PEOPLE. “He gambled, looked at pornography, played other online games, and just spent all his time isolated and alone.”

“Mr. Pathmanathan’s online conduct eventually led him to riskier and riskier behavior and to more and more inappropriate places online,” it continues. Besides 33 years in prison, Pathmanathan was also ordered to serve 10 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender, according to federal authorities.