A 31-year-old Koreatown resident was sentenced on Sept. 15 to 210 months in federal prison for posing online as a teenager and targeting girls for sexual exploitation.

Francisco Sanchez pleaded guilty on May 20 to two counts of production of child pornography. He was sentenced by United States District Judge Dolly M. Gee.

Sanchez used websites and computer applications to meet girls who were minors. From 2014 through September 2016, Sanchez used the pseudonym “Eddie Nash” to pose as a teenage boy and develop online romantic relationships with his victims so that he could obtain sexually explicit images and videos from them.

In some cases, Sanchez convinced his victims to engage in sexually explicit conduct during video chats, which allowed him to take pornographic screen shots of the minors. In other cases, Sanchez threatened to commit suicide to coerce the victims into sending him pictures or videos.

Sanchez threatened to publish or expose the victims if they did not send additional images or videos.

While Sanchez pleaded guilty to two counts – related to victims who were 13 and 14 – he admitted in his plea agreement that he victimized another five teenage girls. Sanchez further admitted that he cyberstalked two victims – which included threatening to make one girl “internet famous” by publishing child pornography depicting her – and that he distributed child pornography on a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.

After prison, Sanchez will be required to register as a sex offender and must serve a lifetime period of supervised release.

The FBI and the Los Angeles Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force investigated the crime. Assistant United States Attorneys Julia S. Choe, of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, and Damaris Diaz, of the Violent and Organized Crime Section, prosecuted the case.