Man Gets 40 Years For Coercining Minors into Online Sex Acts

Tricked them into stripping down, then blackmailed them into more performances

A self-confessed "sextortionist" from Indiana was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison and fined $70,000 for coercing more than a dozen teenagers into performing sex acts online.

Richard Finkbiner, 40, admitted that he tricked the young people into stripping or performing sexual acts for him via webcam, then he used recordings of those sessions to coerce them into making yet more explicit videos. Finkbiner, of Brazil, Ind., agreed in January to plead guilty to child exploitation, extortion and possession of child pornography in exchange for a recommended sentence of 30 to 50 years in prison.

"The sheer number of individuals Finkbiner exploited and extorted justifies a sentence Finkbiner is almost certain not to outlive," prosecutors said in court documents filed June 18 in U.S. District Court in Terre Haute, Ind.