MeetMe predator gets 22 years
Michael Hari

51-year-old Michael Hari of Clarence, Illinois has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for producing child pornography. Hari met his victim on the social/dating app MeetMe. The victim was 15 years old at the time.

According to court documents, Hari met his victim in 2018. He allegedly used MeetMe to request sexually explicit photos and videos from his victim. Once the victim complied, Hari is said to have used those images to blackmail the girl into sending more explicit material.

This is a practice known as sextortion. Once the perpetrator receives explicit images from the victim, they use those images as leverage to receive even more material or to coerce the victim into meeting in person.

In addition to the 22 years, Hari has been given a lifetime of supervised release.

If this Michael Hari sounds familiar, it’s because he was also convicted in a separate federal trial for being the ringleader behind the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque. He was sentenced to 53 years in that case.

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