Ohio man gets 15 years for AI-generated sextortion campaign against women and girls

Key points

• A federal court sentenced 37-year-old James Strahler II of Ohio to 15 years in prison for cyberstalking, sextortion, and producing child sexual abuse material.
• Strahler used more than 100 AI web models across 24 platforms to fabricate sexual images of at least six adult women between December 2024 and June 2025.
• Investigators found over 700 AI-generated images posted to a child abuse site, plus 2,400 more flagged files on his phone.
• He is the first defendant convicted under the Take It Down Act, a 2025 US law banning non-consensual intimate images and AI forgeries.
• Victims can request removal of intimate images through the FTC-backed Take It Down platform.

A federal judge has sentenced an Ohio man to 15 years in prison for running a months-long harassment campaign built almost entirely on artificial intelligence.

James Strahler II, 37, pleaded guilty in April to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual depictions of child sexual abuse, and publishing digital forgeries. According to the US Department of Justice, he is the first person ever convicted of violating the Take It Down Act, the 2025 federal law that criminalises sharing non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated ones.

What did he actually do?

Strahler tormented at least six adult women between December 2024 and June 2025 by sending them a stream of harassing messages, real nude photos, and fake ones he had built with AI. Court filings describe phone calls, voicemails, texts, and public online posts targeting each victim.

He used more than 100 AI web-based models across 24 different AI platforms to generate sexually explicit videos and images of the women, prosecutors said. He then sent the fabricated videos to their co-workers.

His tactics escalated into blackmail. He demanded nude photos from the mothers of women he was harassing, threatening to release the AI-generated fake pornography of their daughters if they refused. He left voicemails with rape threats that recited victims' home addresses.

Investigators also found more than 700 images Strahler had posted to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse material, mixing real victims with animated figures. A further 2,400 images and videos on his phone were flagged as nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material, or violence.

What is the Take It Down Act?

The Take It Down Act is a US federal law passed in 2025 that makes it a crime to publish sexually explicit images of a real person online without consent, including images generated or altered by AI. It also forces platforms to remove such content quickly when a victim reports it.

Strahler's case, first reported by BleepingComputer, is the first federal conviction under the statute. Prosecutors are likely to point to it as a template for future AI-abuse cases.

Case at a glance

What should people do if this happens to them?

If someone is threatening to share intimate images of you, real or fabricated, you have options that do not involve paying or complying.

Report the threats to the FBI through ic3.gov and to local police. Save the messages, usernames, and any URLs before blocking the sender, because that evidence is what prosecutors need. For image removal, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children runs Take It Down, a free service that helps get intimate images of people who were under 18 taken off participating platforms. Adults can use StopNCII.org for a similar hash-based takedown process.

Strahler's case is not isolated. In March, 22-year-old Jamarcus Mosley pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and extortion after breaking into hundreds of young women's social media accounts. In July, 26-year-old Kyle Svara was sentenced to 76 months for hacking nearly 600 Snapchat accounts to steal private nude photos.