Muhammad Zain Ul Abideen Rasheed, a 29-year-old Perth resident, was given a 17-year jail sentence for forcing over 250 victims—180 of them were minors—to conduct lewd activities on video. In what Australian Federal Police Commissioner David McLean called “one of the worst sextortion cases in history,” Rasheed tricked his victims by pretending to be a young social media sensation.
After Rasheed entered a guilty plea to 119 charges in December of last year, the Perth District Court sentenced him on Tuesday. When deciding on his punishment, the court took into account three additional counts that accounted for 108 events, in addition to the charges that were connected to approximately 550 instances during an 11-month period.
The Australian Federal Police, US Homeland Security Investigations, and Interpol worked together to conduct the investigation after receiving information that Rasheed was harassing young females on the internet. In order to identify victims and guarantee their protection, Australian Federal Police in Western Australia also cooperated with law enforcement agencies in other nations.