St. Paul man Yue Vang sentenced to 4 decades in prison for sextorting hundreds of girls
Video is from June 2022
MINNEAPOLIS -- A St. Paul man will spend four decades behind bars for sextorting hundreds of girls across the country over the last five years.
In court Wednesday, Yue Vang, 31, was sentenced to 516 months - or 43 years - in prison on multiple child pornography charges. Vang pleaded guilty to those federal charges in early June.
According to court documents, Vang used Snapchat, Kik, and Skype to communicate with hundreds of girls throughout the U.S. and made fake female profiles to prey on vulnerable girls he met online, coercing them into creating sexually explicit videos and sending them to him.
Vang also threatened to send those videos to family and friends unless the girls sent him more sexually explicit content.
At least 500 girls have been identified as victims, prosecutors say, though they believe there could be as many as 1,000 victims. Anyone who believes they are or might know a victim is asked to contact federal investigators.
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Following his 43-year sentence, Vang will have supervised release for the remainder of his life.
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Resources for crime victims can be found on the Minnesota Department of Corrections website.