Con man gets 898 years in extortion plot

SAN ANTONIO - A fake reality show producer was ordered to serve 898 years in stacked prison sentences Friday after authorities said he conned and extorted more than 100 young men and women - many underage - into performing sexual acts with him.

"The court is looking evil in the face right now," Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery told Gemase Lee Simmons, 36, as the sentencing hearing came to a close. "And you're going to have to pay a price for being that evil."

Citing Simmons' "reign of terror" as one of the most heinous he had seen in his nearly 35 years as a judge, Biery also suggested that the sex offender be housed in solitary confinement at a maximum security facility.

Simmons was convicted in February of six counts of bank fraud involving a $52,000 check-kiting scheme, four counts of extortion and 29 counts involving the creation, transportation and possession of child porn.

His scam has been around since at least 2006, when the parents of young "models" complained to the San Antonio Police Department, to no avail, that Simmons had set up a fake modeling agency to steal their money, FBI Special Agent Larry Baker said Friday.

Simmons would coerce victims as young as 13 into posing nude, adopting multiple personas via text messages to make it appear a national company was considering their modeling services, authorities said.