A court in Los Angeles has sentenced 29-year-old Tyler Buchannan to five years in prison. Buchannan scammed gay and bisexual men in and around Los Angeles by placing “bait” ads offering sexual services, then extorted the men who responded.
NBC reports that Buchannan’s scheme spanned six years and multiple states, though he focused mainly on Southern California. Buchannan took advantage of such websites as Craigslist and Backpage to perpetrate his crimes. Once a victim contacted him by phone, Buchannan would elicit sexual messages that could be potentially embarrassing to his target and/or offering sex for money. With the messages in hand, Buchannan would then threaten to leak the messages to the public, and threaten to accuse his victims of soliciting for prostitution.
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“He tormented numerous victims over many years,” said U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II of Buchannan. Wright also slapped Buchannan with a $67,567 fine in addition to his prison term.
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Buchannan pled guilty to his crimes, telling the court: “I was a damaged and angry person and desperate for money…I broke the law and acted like a person I’m not proud of. I took money from other people and I scared them.”
Law enforcement documented that Blackburn placed at least 1,300 ads on internet sites, extorting his victims for between $100 and $4,000 in a payment. In one case, he managed to wrangle more than $22,000 out of a single victim.
loren_1955
Straight or gay entrapment, doesn’t matter. The guy is total scum. Justice is served.
banditboy
No it was not. Death would’ve been the proper sentence for scum like him.
jcool
so for the next few years he’s going to have to have sex for free.
Openminded
@ jcool. Looks that way. He’ll probably be the only inmate NOT to apply for parole.
david brooke
Had it done to me twice the last time i found out he lived in Nigira not in the USA he was scamming another guys photos to send to me i lost money but learned a lesson
rickywintour
How sad you had to pay for some ass. The desperation you must’ve had to do that. That’s what happens when your thirsty and lonely lmao.
Jake123
@rickywintour don’t be a dick.
BGreen1963
I believe you meant Nigeria. Scam Capitol of the World.
Catholicslutbox
Has anyone found his pictures? Was he at least hot?
James
ONLY A DELUDED LOSER WOULD CARE.
caliboy17
What seems shocking here is that SO MANY Gay Men still can be blackmailed by this sort of a thing. It’s 2021 – not 1951! I could not be blackmailed. Every person I know – including ALL my family and my boss – knows that I am Gay (way gay!) and as for soliciting for prostitution – who the heck cares? We are all up to our necks in porn – what’s a little prostitution? This guy should be happy he got 5 years only. I just hope he gets the full five years.?
BGreen1963
I bet most of his business came from politics and entertainment. Lots of closeted people of wealth and power. Lots of Republican politicians.
barryaksarben
He would have come up empty with me. When I was young a boyfriend wanted to tape our sex and I foolishly agreed only to have him threaten to send it to my mother or sister if I didnt get back with him. Such a flattering offer which I declined and then told him to go ahead as I would tell my family to watch for the tape and that I would then press extortion charges. I called my mom, told her the whole story and if she wanted to see me have sex to watch it ( She laughed at that and said she had ZERO interest in seeing any of her children doing it but would watch for the tape. He never did it and never bothered me again except for following me home a few times and telling my friends some lies which they laughed at. Being open and out for my entire life makes it easy to avoid these nutjobs
Leo
He can be paroled in about 1 1/2 years or released in2 1/2 on good behavior.
DrJohn
since he was so accomplished at it, might we call him a “master baiter’ ?
Gary Lee
That is funny…
cuteguy
I agree that this pariah should pay but what about his so called “victims”? They were soliciting sex for money. Straight or gay, that’s called being a John. That means they were already in a relationship and were cheating on their partner and could’ve exposed their partner to a std or worse. Yes, some will say they were in the closet but at the end of the day, they were being a John and even straight Johns get arrested
Den
His “victims” were in fact victims. You have no idea of their relationship status, who initiated talk of sex for pay, or why this creep was able to extort money from them. Even children understand that their imagination is not reality. What is your problem?
His ads apparently stated that he offered “sexual services” in exchange for money. And “John” is not a legal term nor does it imply the person paying is married or in any sort of relationship. There are many reasons men, both straight or gay use prostitutes. That kind of transaction has never interested me, but I certainly have known people who have sold or purchased sex. Their actions may have been considered illegal, but they were not unethical people like the guy in this article.
Grow up and get a clue!
Gary Lee
I am sure there are many reasons that a man may engage in for pay sexual encounters. I for one will not judge either of the people involved, as long as both are consenting and get what they wanted from the arrangement.
FawltyTower
These assholes come in lots of ways. A friend of mine was trying to help someone or so he thought because he wanted to help the guy because he just gotten out of prison. My friend used to like him when that guy did amateur porn years ago under the name Blaze at Joe Schmoe. Several years later my friend is out $100,000 and the guy is still a massive addict esp. meth and heroin and my stupid friend still gives the asshole money just to help him get by. Beware of him because he’s always on Grindr in Louisville selling himself and has AIDS but doesn’t tell anybody.
MusicBoi74
$22,000 from one victim?!? That’s a hell of a lot of blackmail!