Man Gets Max Federal Sentence In Cyberstalking Of MN Woman

ST. PAUL, MN — A Chinese national was sentenced to 60 months in prison for cyberstalking a female Minnesota college student, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced Monday.

Ki Cheung Yau, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking and one count of identity theft in June. He was sentenced in federal court on Dec. 16.

Under his plea agreement, Yau admitted to cyberstalking seven other people from the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom between 2017 to 2021.

During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright said Yau’s actions "are predatory and purely evil" and showed "a disregard for the safety and well-being of the victims and disregard for the law."

"The injuries you cause do not heal easily," she added.

Wright imposed the statutory maximum sentence for cyberstalking.

From January 2020 through November 2021, Yau used a Minnesota woman's name, photo, and other information to create accounts on various social media platforms, dating websites, and pornography websites, according to authorities.

Yau used the accounts to communicate with strangers online and portrayed the student as a young woman soliciting submissive or violent sexual relationships, investigators said.

Yau tried to help the online strangers locate the student and follow through on his invitations for dominating and violent sexual encounters, according to authorities.

On two separate occasions in January 2021, a man went to the student's home and asked for her by name, "presumably because he believed he was meeting the victim for a sexual encounter," investigators said.

Yau’s cyberstalking also resulted in strangers directly messaging the student, according to authorities. The student's family and friends’ names, photos, and contact information were also included in Yau’s cyberstalking, investigators said.

The student was forced to move homes and change her phone number, according to authorities.