Snapchat Sex Hack, Child Porn Possession Nets Prison Sentence For Oswego Man: DOJ

OSWEGO, IL — An Oswego man was sentenced to just over six years in prison after federal prosecutors determined he hacked more than 500 women's and girls' Snapchat accounts to keep, sell or trade nude photos, including from underage victims, officials said.

Kyle Svara, 27, was sentenced last week to 76 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

He pleaded guilty in January to aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, computer fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud and false statements related to child pornography.

The defense asked for a three-year sentence, and prosecutors asked for five years, a victim witness specialist with the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts told victims in an email obtained by Patch.

"I can't stress how uncommon it is to have a judge go above all recommendations — but so very welcome in this case," the specialist said.

The judge believed Svara did "not truly understand, or care about, the extent of the harm he caused," the email read.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, from at least May 2020 to February 2021, Svara collected victims' emails, phone numbers and Snapchat usernames to send account security codes to victims by posing as a Snap Inc. representative and using anonymized phone numbers, the Justice Department said. He texted more than 4,500 victims to request their Snapchat access codes, and about 570 women provided them. He then accessed about 517 women's accounts to download nude or semi-nude photos, according to investigators.

To track his hacking, Svara kept spreadsheets and lists that contained victims' names, contact information, and Snapchat and Instagram usernames. He documented his degrees of success with notes including "priority," "got in, couldn't crack meo [My Eyes Only]," "got a few," "wrong snap," and "TONS OF HOT NUDES, TRY AGAIN," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

Svara advertised on internet forums, including Reddit, that he could "get into girls snap accounts" for others and provide content "for you or trade," prosecutors said.

His victims included women from Plainfield, including his neighbors, family friends, grade and high school classmates, and friends of his wife and sister. He also targeted a group of students who attended Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and Northeastern University in Boston, Patch reported.

When investigators interviewed Svara, he claimed he did not know anything about hacking Snapchat and had no interest in child pornography. Contrarily, investigators unearthed about 530 images and 600 videos depicting child sexual abuse material on Svara's Meta account. Svara used Instagram to solicit images and videos of children, officials said.

"In one of these exchanges, a user asked expressly, '[d]oes it bother you that I'm underage?' and stated, 'I'm not 18,'" the DOJ shared in its release. "Svara replied, 'Oh okay. More live pics? (:'"

A former Northeastern University track and field coach, Steve Waithe, was named as one of Svara's co-conspirators in the case. Prosecutors said Waithe hired and paid Svara to hack the Snapchat accounts of women he coached or had other relationships with. The ex-coach was convicted in federal court in November 2023 of four cyberstalking and wire fraud-related charges that led to a five-year prison sentence and three years of supervised release.

Svara is due to report to federal prison by Sept. 1. He is eligible to earn up to 15 percent off his total sentence for good time.

He will be required to attend a sex offender treatment program while in prison, and once he's out, he will not be allowed contact with any victims or unsupervised contact with children, including his own, prosecutors said. Svara was assessed a fine of $7,500, a special assessment fee of $500, and $738.05 in restitution.