Former Cumberlands student pleads guilty to extortion, computer fraud charges

A former University of the Cumberlands student accused of an elaborate computer extortion scheme, and for possessing child pornography has pleaded guilty to almost every charge against him, but plans to fight a more serious remaining charge during a jury trial tomorrow.

In U.S. District Court in London last Thursday, 23-year-old Sunkook Kim, through Williamsburg attorney Paul Croley, agreed to plead guilty to 24 separate criminal charges against him – 15 charges of extortion, seven counts of computer fraud and one charge of identity theft.

Kim was indicted on the charges by a federal grand jury in mid-December 2008 and has remained in jail since his arrest last November. Authorities have ruled he must stay in jail pending trial.

He faces up to two years in prison on each of the 15 extortion charges and up to $250,000 in fines for each. He could get up to five years in prison on the computer fraud charges and $250,000 fines and two years in prison on the identity theft charge.
After extensive questioning, U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove accepted Kim’s plea. He does not have a plea agreement in place with prosecutors.

Kim’s attorney, Paul Croley of Williamsburg, notified the court his client plans to fight the lone remaining charge of possession of child pornography. A trial on the issues is scheduled for tomorrow. The charge, which is the most severe against Kim, carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

Kim, a South Korean citizen who was born in Thailand, has been expelled from the University of the Cumberlands since the allegations against him surfaced.

Investigators became interested in Kim after a fellow female student reported to police that she was the victim of an attempted extortion scheme via email sent from a Yahoo! account. The person, believed to be Kim, claimed to have sexually explicit video footage of her and threatened to distribute it to her friends and professors if she did not make another similar video of herself. In all, 21 emails were sent with the threats. Williamsburg Police, along with the help of the Kentucky Attorney General’s cybercrime unit, allegedly tracked the messages to Kim’s personal home computer, and a couple other computers on the University of the Cumberland’s campus. Authorities say Kim was questioned and admitted to sending the emails. According to FBI Special Agent Donnie Kidd, who filed the affidavit in federal court that led to the recent charges, Kim allowed police to have his computer equipment, including a one terabyte external hard drive. During a search of the hard drive, investigators stumbled upon several pornographic videos. One, a 28-minute-long clip, allegedly portrays several adult males engaging in sexual intercourse with girls between the ages of three and seven-years-old. The other shows a girl from 10-13 years old in a shower.

Authorities say both videos were known to investigators and were produced in Cambodia by a Florida man who traveled to the country to make them. He was arrested in 2006 and convicted in connection with the videos.

Investigators claim Kim gained access to 97 separate accounts at the University by installing "key logger" software on computers at the school that would email back to him keystrokes made at the machines. Administrative as well as student accounts were compromised.

Croley argued in court last week that four videos of the alleged victim of Kim’s extortion attempt should not be allowed to be shown to the jury at trial because they would be too prejudicial. The girl was a minor when the video’s were made. Prosecutors want to show the videos to the jury.

Croley said he does not plan to deny that the videos contain minors portrayed in a sexually explicit manner. Kim’s defense will likely be that he did not know the content of the videos when he downloaded them and was not aware of the age of the victim.