A Maryland cyber Lothario who preyed on Bay State hearts to line his pockets is finally facing the music. Brandon D. Kane, a 28-year-old Baltimore resident, was slapped with time served and a year of walking the line under Uncle Sam's watchful eye, following his guilty plea last fall for threatening to blow the lid off the private lives of folks he wooed online, officials said.
Caught in a twisted web of deceit, Kane used a dating site as his personal ATM, shaking down Massachusetts romantics to the tune of $4,800. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, love wasn't the only thing blind here - Kane's victims, whom he met from at least September 2021 through May 2022, got a reality check when he filmed them without their knowledge engaging in drug use and sex acts. Kane then put a price on discretion, threatening to send the recordings to the victims' families and employers if they didn't pay up.
In a sad turn of events, fear compelled one victim to fork over a hefty $3,500 and another, $1,300, in hopes of keeping their secrets from seeing the light of day. Detailed in a statement released by Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and FBI bigwig Jodi Cohen, it’s a cautionary tale reminding the lovelorn to think twice before baring their souls - and more - online.
This modern-day Casanova found no love at his sentencing, though. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris showed Kane little mercy, doling out a term of time served – which totaled five months behind bars – and tacked on a year of supervised release. The judge also ordered restitution, so Kane's victims could recoup some of their losses. The Acting U.S. Attorney Levy and Special Agent in Charge Cohen made it clear:
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jessica Soto and Benjamin Tolkoff, who spearheaded the prosecution, have closed this chapter on cyber-exploitation. Now Kane, having pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate transmission of extortionate threats, must navigate a future where his actions are monitored more closely than any of his online dates ever were.
