A federal grand jury has indicted 19-year-old Tulsa resident Joseph Scott Warledo, known by the alias Bando, on six counts including sexual abuse of minors and firearm offenses, and federal agents are now publicly asking whether additional victims exist. The indictment, unsealed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, accuses Warledo of sexually abusing two victims under age 16 during 2025.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma announced the indictment on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice. Federal court records show Warledo, an enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, faces two counts of Sexual Abuse of an Incapable Victim, two counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in Indian Country, one count of Assault with a Dangerous Weapon with Intent to do Bodily Harm in Indian Country, and one count of Carrying, Using, Brandishing, and Discharging a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence.
Court records allege Warledo knowingly engaged in a sexual act with a minor victim under 16 on three separate occasions in 2025, while he was at least four years older than the victim. The same records also allege he brandished a firearm during a crime of violence connected to the case, per the Department of Justice release.
Joint FBI-Tulsa Police Investigation Led to Charges
The criminal investigation that produced the indictment was conducted jointly by the FBI's Oklahoma City Field Office and the Tulsa Police Department, with the case assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorney Blithe Cravens for prosecution. Such federal-local partnerships are routinely used across eastern Oklahoma to investigate violent crimes, civil rights violations, and child exploitation cases involving overlapping jurisdictions, as Hoodline has previously reported.
Because Warledo is a tribal member and the alleged offenses occurred in Indian Country involving minor victims, federal law enforcement holds exclusive jurisdiction under the Indian Major Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1153. That authority stems from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which affirmed that tribal reservation boundaries remain intact for the purposes of federal criminal jurisdiction.
What the Charges Mean Under Federal Law
Under 18 U.S.C. § 2242, federal law defines sexual abuse of an incapable victim as knowingly engaging in a sexual act with someone who is mentally or physically incapable of appraising or declining participation, or of communicating willingness, according to a guide published by the California Women's Law Center. The indictment's firearm count also carries weight beyond the underlying abuse charges: 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) imposes mandatory minimum prison sentences for brandishing or discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence, and those sentences must by statute run consecutively to any sentence for the underlying offenses, the Department of Justice noted in its release.
The Department of Justice emphasized that a federal grand jury indictment is solely a formal charging document based on probable cause, and that Warledo, like any defendant, is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
FBI Widens Search for Potential Victims
Separately from the indictment's specific allegations, FBI Oklahoma City posted a public request on social media Thursday seeking to identify additional potential victims of Warledo. The bureau said it believes Warledo primarily targeted minor female victims, and it asked anyone who was victimized, or whose minor dependents were victimized, to fill out an information form; FBI Oklahoma City also accepts tips through its standard public tip submission channel.
Notably, the FBI's outreach spans a wider timeframe than the indictment itself, covering March 2025 through June 2026, which suggests investigators suspect there could be more unidentified victims beyond the two named in the current charges. That pattern mirrors a similar effort Hoodline covered in June, when the FBI sought victims after a federal sexual assault indictment on tribal land in Oregon, part of the bureau's standard protocol of building dedicated victim intake questionnaires during Indian Country sex crime inquiries.
No court date or additional case details beyond the indictment were included in the Department of Justice's announcement. The investigation remains open, and the FBI's call for information indicates the case could expand as agents review tips submitted through their public channel.
