Adam Savader, a former intern for Paul Ryan, was arrested by the FBI and charged in a weird sexual extortion scheme:

A 21-year-old Great Neck, New York man was charged in a criminal complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan with Internet extortion and cyber stalking, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade. . . .

According to the affidavit, from May 2012 through February 2013, Adam Paul Savader sent anonymous text messages using Google Voice numbers to 15 women stating that he had nude photographs of the women and threatening to distribute the nude photographs to the women’s friends and family members unless the women sent him more nude photographs of themselves. Savader sent some of the victims links to a photo-sharing website where nude pictures of the victims had been posted.

The case was brought to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by detectives from the Ann Arbor Police Department, who received a complaint from a victim stating that she had received threatening messages from a person who had illegally obtained nude photographs of her from her e-mail account. Detectives with the Ann Arbor P.D. partnered with FBI agents to investigate the case and together identified 15 victims in Detroit; Washington, D.C.; and Long Island, New York.

If convicted on these charges, Savader faces a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.

Via Adam Steinbaugh who explain the details:

[A] recently-unsealed complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan . . . alleges, essentially, that a New York man — Adam Paul Savader — used a variety of Google Voice numbers to text women under the monicker “John Smith.” ”Smith” told the women that he had nude photos of them (or, in one victim’s case, her mother) and that he would post more online if they did not send more nude photos. He allegedly threatened to send the photos to their family members, sorority sisters, and the Republican National Committee, telling one that everyone in “D.C” would see the nude photos. The unidentified victims apparently attended the same college as Savader.

On Twitter, Adam Savader brags that he was “Formerly @PRyan’s sole intern on @MittRomney’s campaign and a @newtgingrich campaign staffer” and notes that his website is savader.com. The whois registration for the site lists his abode as being the same Great Neck, NY address as the address affiliated with the IP address used to register many of the online accounts allegedly used in the sextortion plot.

Savader’s Twitter account has not yet been deleted.

UPDATE: Reading the complaint — and trust me, it’s a must-read — I’m wondering: Do all college girls now have naked photos online?

ALL WOMEN ON THE INTERNET: I have nude photos of you that I will send to your friends if you don’t send me more! theothermccain.com/2013/04/23/pau… — Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 24, 2013

Hey, I could have a great future as a Republican intern . . .

UPDATE II: Welcome, Twitchy readers! It turns out, because I know everybody, I’m just one degree of separation from Adam Savader:

@rsmccain met him and we have mutual friends, we’re all in shock right now. He seemed awkward, but we had no clue just how creepy he was! — Courtney Mattison (@CourtMattison) April 24, 2013

There is a lesson here about the perils of the digital age: Anything you put on the Web — even uploaded to private accounts — can be accessed, if someone with enough skills really wants to get to it bad enough. And naked pictures? Yeah, don’t do those. Ever. Because that boyfriend you’re sending them to may not be your boyfriend forever.





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