Berkeley High alum sentenced to nine months in jail for massive child porn hacking/extortion scheme
Liam Burgmann, 20, attempted to blackmail some of the victims, and posted photos of others on various websites.
OAKLAND — A 20-year-old Berkeley resident has pleaded no contest to distributing nude photographs of 13 people and been sentenced to nine months in jail, as part of a plea deal with Alameda County prosecutors, court records show.
Liam Burgmann, a Berkeley High alumni, allegedly hacked multiple Berkeley High students’ Snapchat accounts, targeting teen girls for their underage photographs. Some of the pictures were posted to websites like 4Chan and Reddit, while others were used in attempts to blackmail the victims, authorities say.
In a Feb. 23 court hearing, Burgmann pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts: invasion of privacy and distributing images of intimate body parts to cause distress. The latter charge was written up to include all 13 victims. In exchange for his plea, Burgmann was sent to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin that same day to begin serving the nine-month term.
Burgmann remains in jail, with a formal sentencing date sent for June 5. He can reduce his jail term by half with good behavior. After his jail sentence, he will have to serve a three-month house arrest term with electronic monitoring, as well as a three-year probation term.
When police arrested Burgmann in 2021, they said they had linked him to a Kik account containing “130 clips/videos of child pornography,” with ages ranging from “3 years old to 12 years old.” Police also found evidence Burgmann was claiming to have nude pictures of students from El Cerrito High School, as well as Berkeley High, according to court records. He allegedly used the online alias “WillKonlo.”
“Burgmann possessed, over 100 names, emails, snapchats, Instagram’s, passwords, login usernames, phone numbers, birthdates, and addresses of people for the sole purpose of accessing their personal information/accounts to steal nude photographs,” a Berkeley police detective wrote in court papers at the time.
Until he accepted the deal, Burgmann was free since early September 2021, roughly a week after his arrest, when he posted $220,000 bail.