Justin Poon, of West Hempstead, pleads guilty to 'sextortion,' federal officials say

A West Hempstead man faces up to 70 years in prison after pleading guilty to what the federal government calls sextortion: obtaining nude videos of underage teenage girls and young women whom he would blackmail and whose videos he would sell on the internet.

The man, Justin Poon, now 27, also traveled out of state to meet one of the girls, age 16, for sex; "induced" another girl to make sexually explicit images of herself "according to his specifications"; pretended to be a customer service agent of Snapchat to get girls’ passwords "so he could access private materials in their accounts"; and possessed underage pornography of over 50 different people, according to a news release.

"When one of his 16-year-old victims pleaded with him not to ‘ruin [her] life,’ because she ‘need[ed] to go to university,’ the defendant responded: ‘I don’t care,’ " the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which prosecuted the case in Brooklyn, wrote in the news release, issued Friday.

The minimum prison sentence for the case against Poon, which includes charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography, is 25 years.

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 16, John Marzulli, a spokesman for the office, wrote in an email.

The conduct to which Poon pleaded guilty on Friday occurred between December 2018 and December 2023, the month he was arrested. It came to light when one of the victims went to the FBI, Newsday reported then.

Poon was convicted in 2021 of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old, the release says.

His attorney, Kyla Wells, of the Federal Defenders of New York, did not return an email seeking comment on Friday.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.