Portland Man Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Sextortion of a Minor

MINNEAPOLIS - A Portland man has been sentenced to 180 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for producing child sexual abuse material and sextorting a minor victim, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, in May 2022, Aaron Eugene Bjarnason, 25, of Portland, Oregon, used his Instagram account to message Minor Victim 1 and asked if she was "open to sugar daddies." Bjarnason offered to pay the minor for sexually explicit images and videos and shared a screenshot of his purported bank account to prove he could provide payment. On several occasions, Bjarnason directed Minor Victim 1 to send him specific sexually explicit images and videos. Bjarnason became increasingly forceful in his demands and threatened Minor Victim 1 that he would share the images and videos with her father and her peers if she did not continue to comply with his demands.

On April 2, 2024, Bjarnason pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography. He was sentenced today in U.S. District Court by Judge John R. Tunheim.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Carver County Sheriff's Office and the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan B. Gilead prosecuted the case.