The Stepson Of PA's Banking Secretary Will Be Sentenced Tues. In Federal Court

LOWER MORELAND, PA — A Philly man who had been charged by the feds with cyberstalking a teenage girl in Lower Moreland Township and blackmailing her into having sex with him is scheduled to be sentenced at U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Mikael Laferla, 20, also known as Mikael Zarett, is reportedly the stepson of Pennsylvania Banking and Securities Secretary Richard Vague, who resides in the Rittenhouse section of Philadelphia.

Laferla previously pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking, court records show.

A sentencing memorandum at federal court shows that Laferla could be facing 24 months in federal prison in addition to a one-year period of supervised release with the first six months on home incarceration.

Laferla, a city native who attended high school at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr and then did one-and-a-half years at Fordham University, was charged last month by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with one count of cyberstalking in connection to an incident involving an unnamed Lower Moreland girl.

According to the charging documents in the case, the girl's mother contacted Lower Moreland police in September 2018 to report that her underage daughter had been threatened by Laferla, who had said he would distribute nude and semi-nude pictures of the girl to her social media contacts and to her 14-year-old sister unless she agreed to perform sexual acts on him.

The girl had said that she and Laferla exchanged several nude photos of themselves through their Snapchat accounts.

The girl eventually blocked Laferla from her accounts after "being uncomfortable when he asked her about bringing a condom when/if he meets her," according to the criminal complaint.

Laferla eventually apologized, records show, and the two began communicating again on social media. Eventually, Laferla demanded that the girl have sex with him or he would distribute her nude photos to her friends and social media contacts, according to the government.

Laferla ultimately made good on his threats and sent two pictures of the girl to her younger sister's Snapchat account, according to the complaint.

In October 2018, a detective with the Lower Moreland Township Police Department obtained a search warrant for Laferla's Snapchat account.

In early January, FBI Special Agent Adam Sucheski requested a federal arrest warrant in the case after investigators determined that Laferla likely violated federal cyberstalking laws since the crimes involved using the Internet to transmit the elicit communications.

The Philadelphia Inquirer had reported that Laferla was arrested on Jan. 20 at the home of Vague, the stepfather who was appointed in 2020 to serve as Pennsylvania's banking and securities secretary.

Federal court records show that Laferla is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage.