HOUSTON – Federal charges were filed against a Texas man accused of exploiting more than 1,000 women, some being underage, with photos and videos, according to court documents.
Andrew Venegas, 23, was charged with sexual exploitation of children.
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According to records, since the summer of 2022, Venegas sold numerous videos and photos online to extort women throughout the United States. Evidence showed that Venegas would blackmail them through Snapchat, Tik Tok, LinkedIn and other social media accounts.
He allegedly gained access to these women’s content through hacking or stealing from their social media accounts. Venegas would then blackmail the women with the photos and videos to get them to send more explicit content in exchange for him to remove all evidence from his website or phone.
Venegas, using the online name “Starkylol,” advertised the content, including offering content depicting minors under the age of 18, and made transactions to customers through two different online websites, according to court documents.
According to court records, several victims first found out that their images or videos were posted after individuals contacted them and threatened to share the images/videos with friends or family if they did not provide additional explicit images and videos. Additionally, at least one victim reported that some of the sexual images depicted them as a minor.
Law enforcement began investigating these incidents after several women reached out to report Venegas, including one woman from Texas, records show.
In a text exchange, Venegas, who believed he was talking to a customer, sent law enforcement a message, reading, “All college girls, 100, all college and blackmail, 155, all college blackmail and under 18, 215.”
He was selling collections of images, such as $100 for sexually explicit photos of college girls, $150 for blackmail content and $250 for all college blackmail and under 18 years old content.
In one incident, a woman reached out to Venegas after becoming aware of her photos being posted on one of his website for sale, according to court records. She asked him to take down her nude photos but the suspect reportedly told her in exchange to taking down photos, she would need to send him more nude photos or pay him $250 through crypto. The woman reportedly sent him the money but law enforcement stated that Venegas never removed the photos of the woman.
How investigators tracked down suspect
Law enforcement identified him using records from a number of various electronics providers, such as cryptocurrency and his IP address, records show.
According to court documents, Venegas received at least two transactions from law enforcement, with two different email addresses, through crypto but investigators never received the content that was paid for. He reportedly would move the money from one crypto account to another named “Andrew Venegas,” which helped investigators track his real identity.