Atlanta Man Pleads Guilty to 'Sextortion' Charges

BUCKHEAD, GA -- An Atlanta man who once worked for the State Department has pleaded guilty to charges related to a “sextortion” racket he operated while working at the U.S. Embassy in London, federal prosecutors said.

Michael C. Ford, 36, was indicted in August on nine counts of cyberstalking, seven counts of computer hacking to extort, and one count of wire fraud. He will be sentenced on Feb. 16.

Ford was arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in May.

Ford used his embassy computer to operate his scheme from January 2013 to May of 2015. According to prosecutors, Ford obtained passwords for his victims’ social media and e-mail accounts by pretending to be a member of Google’s “account deletion team” and threatening to delete the victims’ accounts unless he received a password.

Password in hand, Ford would then access his victims’ social media accounts and find sexual images of his victims and threaten to send them to friends and family if the victims did not provide him with videos of “sexy girls” undressing in changing rooms, locker rooms, and other areas.

Ford followed through on the threats if his victims refused to cooperate; prosecutors say he did send some sexually compromising photos of uncooperative victims to their families and friends, and even threatened victims by saying he knew where they lived, telling one victim her “red fire escape” ladder would be easy to climb.

Ultimately, Ford sent thousands of fraudulent “phishing” email messages to potential victims, successfully hacked into at least 450 online accounts belonging to at least 200 victims, and forwarded to himself at least 1,300 stolen email messages containing thousands of sexually explicit photographs. Ford sent threatening and “sextortionate” online communications to at least 75 victims.

“With nothing more than a computer and a few keystrokes, modern predators like Michael Ford can victimize hundreds of people around the world,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell in a statement.

“While this criminal prosecution may never return the victims’ sense of security, I hope that today’s guilty plea brings them some peace of mind.”