President Trump’s Justice Department announced a 33-year federal sentence for a Canadian predator who targeted children across the United States.
Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, of Toronto, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in connection with a sextortion scheme that prosecutors said reached more than 145 victims.
Some of those victims were as young as six years old.
The sentence does not replace his Canadian punishment. It stacks on top of it.
DOJ said the 33-year U.S. prison term will run consecutively to the 12-year sentence Pathmanathan is already serving in Canada.
The FBI highlighted the case after the sentence, calling it the takedown of a prolific predator:
Today’s story behind the numbers: This #FBI and the takedown of a prolific predator who used “sextortion” to terrorize children and families across the country.
Ramanan Pathmanathan of Toronto, Canada, spent years hunting down children to exploit. He ultimately contacted at…
— FBI (@FBI) June 8, 2026
The U.S. Department of Justice described the sentence and the case this way:
WASHINGTON – Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 33 years in federal prison in connection with a prolific sextortion scheme that targeted more than 100 children across the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.
“This defendant spent years methodically hunting children online. He targeted more than 145 victims, some as young as six, and subjected them to horrors no child should ever experience,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro.
“The United States will not allow international borders to serve as a refuge for those who prey on children, and I am grateful to our Canadian partners for ensuring this predator faced justice on both sides of the border.”
In addition to the 396-month prison term, Chief Judge Boasberg ordered Pathmanathan to serve 10 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender.
The prison term will run consecutively to the 12-year sentence that Pathmanathan is serving in Canada.
According to court documents, Pathmanathan used multiple social media accounts, primarily Instagram and Facebook Messenger, to establish contact with at least 145 young girls and boys.
Between at least March 2014 up until the day of his arrest on March 10, 2021, Pathmanathan posed as a teenage boy from New Jersey.
ADVERTISEMENTPathmanathan recorded his victims’ sexually explicit conduct and saved the files on his desktop computer. Some of the victims were as young as six years old.
When the minor victims would decline to continue to engage in sexually explicit conduct or blocked Pathmanathan’s social media accounts, he threatened to send images to the children’s friends or family.
This case was investigated by the FBI Houston Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and the Texas Department of Public Safety.
This case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative.
The cross-border piece matters.
Pathmanathan was already serving time in Canada, and DOJ said its Office of International Affairs secured his temporary surrender so he could face an American court too.
That is exactly what parents should want to see when a predator reaches into American homes through a screen.
No border should be a hiding place for someone who hunts children online.
Thirty-three years on top of the Canadian sentence is a serious answer to a serious crime.
