HOUSTON – One of the world’s most prolific alleged child sextortion suspects has been extradited to the United States to face federal charges, following an extensive FBI Houston investigation and a conviction in Canada.
Ramanan Pathmanathan, who previously pleaded guilty on similar charges and was sentenced to 12 years in Canada, was brought to the U.S. last week despite appealing his extradition, according to FBI Houston.
He’s facing an 11-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in 2022. including 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.
“Ramanan Pathmanathan is allegedly one of the most prolific child predators and sextortionists FBI Houston has ever encountered. By deliberately targeting and methodically sexually exploiting juveniles around the United States, Pathmanathan inflicted incalculable misery and suffering on dozens of children and their families,” FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams said.
The case highlights work by late FBI Special Agent Kenya Merritt, who pursued justice for hundreds of victims across multiple countries.
“He started finding victims across the state of Texas, and then that expanded across the United States, then that expanded across the globe,” said FBI Houston Supervisory Special Agent Torrence White, who oversees crimes against children investigators.
Investigation Reveals Global Scale of Exploitation
Federal investigators believe Pathmanathan has hundreds of victims in at least five countries.
He allegedly conducted at least part of his exploitation campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic when many students were learning from home.
“It works right in line with what he understood ... where society was at that point in time,” White said. “He’s a calculated guy who understood ... the way the world works."
According to investigators, Pathmanathan used multiple online aliases to target juveniles. When Toronto police arrested him in 2021, this was the list investigators knew of:
- Brett Barr
- _.brett_forever_12345._
- .098
- _.mlg_gamer_.321
- mlgg.ggamer ._
- bretss.spam .098
- _____bretts__spam_
- _brett_gamer_
- _gamer_brett_spam
- _spam_brett_
- __.gamer_.321
- brettspamz098
- brett_spam_
- .b.098_
- _spam_account_brett_
- jbrettspam098
- _Aye_its_brett
- its_brett_b
- brettjosh_0987
“He pretended to be somebody he wasn’t in order to gain the trust of the juveniles that he spoke with online,” White explained.
Sophisticated Exploitation Tactics
Canadian court records revealed that Pathmanathan, an online poker player who lived with his parents, posed as a 17-year-old American boy and asked victims between the ages of 12 and 15 to send him child sexual abuse material, forcing them to perform certain acts on camera for him.
He maintained detailed records of conversations with his victims, their ages and information, as well as their social media followers. He allegedly threatened to leak their sexual content if they blocked him or deleted their own account.
The mother of one of the victims shared this victim impact statement in Canadian court:
“She told me how excited she had been having such a handsome guy interested in her, the confusion and discomfort she felt when he asked her for pictures that she did not want to take. Finally, the shock, and humiliation that came with realizing that he was not at all who he had claimed to be and was in fact within a few years of her parents’ age. I don’t know if you can imagine a parent’s anger and feelings of helplessness while watching your child go through something as exploitative and degrading as this incident. No parent should have to,” according to records.
Dedicated Houston Agent’s Case
While Canadian authorities worked the case, FBI Houston provided information to help in the investigation, including information that helped lead to a search warrant being executed at Pathmanathan’s home, White said.
“One of our very, very eager agents, Kenya Merritt, said, ‘hey, there’s something here,’” White recalled. “He really pushed to say, ‘Let’s move this case forward.’”
Merritt traveled to Canada at least three times during the investigation and helped track down victims, several of which are in Texas, according to records.
“This guy hurt a lot of people, and he really wanted to make sure justice was done for the victims,” White said.
But tragically, Merritt never saw the case through to completion.
After a six-month counterterrorism deployment in 2010 to Iraq where he was exposed to burn pits, Merritt was diagnosed with lung cancer.
“He was a healthy guy. Like Kenya, if it wasn’t organic, he didn’t eat it. Never smoked in his life. He was a Division I college basketball player. It was everything all healthy. Even when I didn’t want to work out, he’s pushing me to work out,” White said.
Last October, at 48, Merritt passed away.
“I was there when he passed, just the day before, and he said, ‘Hey, make sure we get this done,’” White shared.
When asked what Merritt would say about the extradition, White responded, “He would be screaming at the top of his lungs in the office, saying, ‘We did it, we got him. I told you I was gonna do it.’”
Next Steps in Prosecution
The FBI Houston Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force played a key role in securing Pathmanathan’s extradition.
Pathmanathan is currently in federal custody and scheduled for a plea agreement hearing in early 2026. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. is prosecuting the case.