ISU Police solve international investigation into a neo-Nazi group that sexually exploited children online
AMES, Iowa — The Iowa State University Police Department is crediting a student for helping bring down a child exploitation enterprise that targeted dozens of young people.
Iowa State Police started investigating this case after a freshman called their department in November 2020. She said she was being blackmailed by a man she met online when she was a minor.
Police Chief Michael Newton said officers reached what they thought was a dead end in the investigation when they asked another officer, Kami Feld, to look into the case.
Feld noticed a fake address in her research, which gave her a new avenue for the investigation. She scoped through years of online data and banking records and she found several IP addresses.
'This person knew how to cover their tracks,' said Feld. 'I took webinars, courses, anything cyber security and technology related to further my understanding of these components.'
Across the street of the Iowa State University Police Department is their Investigative Services site. Feld spent hundreds of hours using what's called a Block Box to search through devices and online data.
'A lot of images, videos, files of the abuse. A lot of messages, not only to their victims and coercing their victims, but to other members in the group, to their friends, bragging, detailing their efforts and outcomes,' said Feld when asked to describe the content she was looking into.
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It became clear to Feld that the ISU student wasn't the only victim, and this was part of a much larger case. Through her investigation, Feld identified her suspect at 41-year-old Clint Borge of Hawaii.
Feld requested the help of Iowa's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to assist with connecting Borge to other victims across the world. Her investigation connected her to a Homeland Security case out of Los Angeles, California.
'They had identified three of the four core members and, at the time, they only had an IP address for the suspect I had identified,' she said.
With the help of Feld, investigators connected Borge to the 'CVLT,' pronounced 'cult.' According to a federal indictment, this is an international group that supported neo-Nazism and pedophilia as its core principles. CVLT members groomed and coerced children to self-produce child pornography. They also coerced their victims to engage in dehumanizing acts, detailed in the indictment.
CVLT members coerced the children to continue producing more pornography by threatening to release the existing content to the child's friends, family, or the public if the child did not want to produce more, according to the indictment.
The members exploited vulnerable children, like mental health challenges or prior sexual abuse, according to the document.
Investigators found at least 30 victims, and the youngest was 11-years-old.
Feld traveled to Hawaii in August 2021, where she got to work with the Department of Homeland Security and interrogate Borge.
Three other men were also arrested, including 23-year-old Collin Walker of New Jersey, 24-year-old Kaleb Merritt of Texas, and 28-year-old Rohan Rane of France. All four are charged with producing child sexual abuse material and face a minimum of 20-years in prison.
A four year investigation is now complete, because of the work Officer Feld and a tip from one brave student.
'The power of one person coming forward. You think about that. This one person comes to Iowa State University Police and we were able to track at least 30 victims throughout the country. The bravery of one can mount to so much. We were able to take down an international group. It's amazing, ' said Newton.
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