MANCHESTER, NH – A decade of terror ended this week with the guilty plea of Ryan J. Vallee, 22, formerly of Belmont and Franklin, New Hampshire, to a staggering 31-count superseding indictment. Vallee systematically hacked into the online lives of nearly a dozen women, then leveraged that access to extort sexually explicit photos, turning their digital worlds into a personal nightmare.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service’s Manchester Field Office revealed that from 2011 through March 2016, Vallee, operating under aliases like “Seth Williams” and “James McRow,” conducted a calculated “sextortion” campaign. He didn’t just ask for photos; he took control, locking victims out of their email, Facebook, and Instagram accounts, then defacing them as a demonstration of his power. The indictment details 13 counts of making interstate threats, one count of computer hacking to steal information, eight counts of computer hacking to extort, eight counts of aggravated identity theft, and one count of cyberstalking.
The methods were brazen and cruel. Vallee didn’t stop at digital intrusion. He exploited stolen payment information from one victim’s Amazon.com account, ordering sexually suggestive items delivered to her home. In other instances, he pilfered explicit photos of victims and their associates, then distributed them to friends and family, amplifying the humiliation. One particularly disturbing tactic involved creating a fake Facebook profile nearly identical to a victim’s, populating it with compromising photos, and sending friend requests to her entire social circle.
Vallee’s threats weren’t idle. According to the plea agreement, he used spoofed and anonymized text messages to deliver explicit threats: comply with his demands for photos, or face continued harassment and exposure. When victims pleaded for him to stop, Vallee reportedly doubled down, escalating the threats. The Secret Service investigation, spanning ten years, painstakingly pieced together the digital trail of this predator, revealing the extent of his depravity.
The case was spearheaded by Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold H. Huftalen of the District of New Hampshire. The Belmont Police Department provided substantial assistance. Vallee was initially arrested in March 2016, but re-arrested on new charges while awaiting trial and has remained in custody since. He is now scheduled to be sentenced on December 1, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, and faces a significant prison term.
Authorities are urging victims of similar “sextortion” schemes to come forward, acknowledging the immense difficulty in reporting such crimes. The Justice Department emphasizes that silence only empowers predators like Vallee. This conviction serves as a stark warning: the digital world may seem anonymous, but the Secret Service, and its partners, are actively working to bring cybercriminals to justice, even after a decade-long pursuit.
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Key Facts
- Agency: U.S. Secret Service
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Press Release
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