764, Sextortion, Legal, Fiji, Grace Road
" ... The court documents show that, between April 2023 and September 2023, Tinajero engaged in a systematic series of criminal acts. Tinajero targeted minors by entering discord and telegram chatrooms and other online spaces where underage individuals were present. One primary victim, later designated as Jane Doe 1, first communicated with him when she was approximately 14 years old. Operating under multiple aliases (including "dreamer370" and "Christus"), he initially presented himself in a benign manner to establish trust before gradually escalating to explicit requests. The method of online grooming seen in this case follows patterns observed in other child exploitation cases, as well as in ways that minors are recruited into violent extremist networks.
Predators often join publicly accessible chatrooms or forums—spaces that are loosely moderated and where minors are likely to be present. Initial contact is usually made on communication apps, video games or safe spaces for vulnerable youths. Tinajero operated under names like "dreamer370" and "Christus" to appear more relatable and less threatening. This tactic is designed to build rapport and mask his true identity. In these settings, offenders typically start with benign or friendly conversation. As trust builds, they incrementally steer the dialogue toward more personal and ultimately explicit topics. This "slow burn" approach helps normalize the inappropriate behavior in the eyes of the victim before any explicit requests are made. After establishing a connection in public spaces, the offender then shifts the conversation to private channels—Telegram and Discord are explicitly mentioned in Tinajero's case. This move allows for the exchange of explicit content, the use of financial incentives (via platforms like Cash App), and even the dissemination of a "Lorebook" containing the victim's personal details. As part of the grooming process, Tinajero used online payment platforms—most notably Cash App was used to send money in exchange for explicit photographs and videos from his victims. This financial exchange not only reinforced the exploitative relationship but also provided a transactional model that normalized the abusive behavior.
When his demands for additional explicit material (particularly from Jane Doe 1) were not met, Tinajero escalated his behavior. He began issuing explicit death threats and discussing murder plots against the victim Jane Doe 1, even outlining plans to dispose of her body in acid . These threats were disseminated on Telegram where he also published a "Lorebook." This document compiled the victim's personal details (including her images and the identities of her family members), thus serving as a tool for intimidation and blackmail. Evidence from the court filings indicates that, between July and September 2023, Tinajero engaged in discussions with at least one co-conspirator regarding the murder of Jane Doe 1. The conversations reveal a coordinated plan, suggesting that Tinajero's violent intentions were shared by others within his network. In addition to his exploitative and violent online behavior, Tinajero was involved in other criminal activities. Court records document an arrest for driving while intoxicated and an attempt to purchase an AR‑15, which ultimately failed due to a delayed background check. These incidents further demonstrate his predisposition to high-risk behavior and a willingness to acquire tools for violence."
"At 12-years-old, despite her parents' objections, Chelsea (pseudonym) made an Instagram account, easily fudging her real birthday to meet Instagram's age requirement. But things quickly went south.
Not long after downloading the app, a sexual predator found Chelsea and pretended to be romantically interested in her. He manipulated and groomed her to gain her trust, which he then leveraged to convince her to send sexually explicit images.
After sending these images, the predator began requesting more and more, threatening her if she refused: he would kill her friends and family, he knew where she lived. He even forced her to turn over her password so he could use her account to lure other kids into his criminal web.
This is sextortion.
Sextortion is the use of sexual images to blackmail the person depicted in those images. It often encompasses a financial element as well, where predators demand money, threatening to publish explicit images of children if they do not comply. While an extremely pervasive problem, tech companies are seldom doing enough to prevent it.
"Instagram makes billions of dollars from kids like my daughter using their platform. They owe our kids better protection," said Chelsea's mom.
The Economist: The doomsday cult's guide to taking over a country
" ... Over the past decade, Fiji – a tropical nation whose name summons visions of cocktails under verdant palm trees and luxurious oceanside resorts – has become a haven for Grace Road, one of many shadowy Korean cults that have found footholds abroad. Since it arrived in Fiji in 2013, Grace Road has been accused by local and foreign police of forcing its 400-odd followers to work in its businesses, abusing them with violence and sleep deprivation, and kidnapping their family members. The cult has also been accused of corrupting members of Fiji's former government, which allegedly helped fund Grace Road's commercial ventures and resisted international warrants to arrest its members.
Most Fijians have turned a blind eye to these allegations. Locals have become enamoured with the products and services offered by Grace Road – and the promise of economic development represented by its businesses, which are as omnipresent on the island as Starbucks is in America. The bizarre, parasitic relationship that has developed between Grace Road and Fiji exemplifies the risks that arise when a small, poor nation chases prosperity by sacrificing some of its sovereignty to mysterious outsiders – in this case, a cult preparing for the world's end – and the immense difficulty of expelling these groups once they have put down roots.""In the latter half of the 20th century – as South Koreans grappled with the legacy of Japanese colonial rule (which came to an end with the second world war), the traumatic division of the Korean peninsula, a series of brutal military dictatorships and nuclear threats from their northern neighbour – cults sprouted throughout the country. According to Tark Ji-Il, a professor at Busan Presbyterian University who is an expert on South Korean cults, the country's social and political troubles were "turning points" that made doomsday messages particularly appealing to people who were desperately seeking stability. Most of the nascent cults had their roots in Christianity, but with an alarming twist: their founders typically claimed to be the modern incarnation of Jesus, demanded obsessive devotion and predicted the imminent end of the world. Today, about a third of South Korea's population consider themselves Christians; of that number, Tark estimates that around a tenth are members of cults.
Most Fijians have turned a blind eye to these allegations. Locals have become enamoured with the products and services offered by Grace Road
In recent decades, cults have played roles in some of the country's biggest scandals. Tark's own father, a prominent theologian, was fiercely opposed to them; in 1994, three days after criticising a cult on television, he was stabbed to death in what appeared to be a retaliatory attack. In 2016 South Korea's president was impeached after it emerged that the family of a shamanistic cult leader (whom many in the country called a "Korean Rasputin") had edited her speeches, advised her on policy and used government connections to press the country's largest businesses into donating $69m to cult-controlled charitable foundations. In 2023 a Netflix documentary alleged that leaders of several of South Korea's largest cults raped and sexually exploited many of their followers.
Some of these groups have established outposts among the Korean diaspora in countries such as America, South Africa, Singapore and Japan. The best known is the Unification church – often referred to as the "Moonies", after the surname of its founder – who came to global attention for organising mass weddings between members. (In 2022 Abe Shinzo, a former prime minister of Japan who had ties to the Moonies, was killed by a man whose mother bankrupted herself through donations to the cult.)
But even as Korean cults have become notorious for their eccentricity, their growth abroad has gone relatively unscrutinised. Partly this is due to confusion about who has jurisdiction over them – the governments of the countries where they have outposts or South Korea itself – as well as the difficulties authorities face in gaining the trust of Korean immigrant communities."
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