The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has embarked on a significant probe into the nefarious online network identified as “764.” This investigation, which is currently scrutinizing over 350 subjects, was revealed to Fox News through inside sources.
Characterized by the FBI as a “loosely organized” group, the network 764 is reportedly involved in manipulating minors and other at-risk individuals into participating in violent, harmful, and exploitative activities. The FBI has expressed deep concerns about these networks in a statement, highlighting how these online predators often develop relationships with the vulnerable through popular digital platforms, only to then coerce them into increasingly destructive behaviors.
The bureau’s statement further elaborates on the grave nature of these acts, which include the production of explicit content, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and even physical harm like self-mutilation or pet abuse. Alarmingly, some of these predators go as far as observing live broadcasts of these violent acts.
In response to these alarming activities, the FBI has ramped up its efforts by training personnel across all field offices. Additionally, the agency is collaborating with both domestic and international law enforcement agencies to identify the perpetrators responsible for these heinous acts and ensure they face justice.
FBI Director Kash Patel, alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi, addressed the media at a Department of Justice news conference on December 4, 2025, underscoring the agency’s commitment to tackling this issue. (Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In a related development, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia disclosed in April that two purported leaders of the 764 network have been apprehended and charged. Leonidas Varagiannis, known by the alias “War,” a U.S. citizen residing in Greece, and Prasan Nepal, also known as “Trippy,” from North Carolina, are accused of orchestrating an international child exploitation ring. If convicted, both individuals face the possibility of life imprisonment.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered – a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing Varagiannis and Nepal’s arrests. “We will find those who exploit and abuse children, prosecute them, and dismantle every part of their operation.”
The FBI has launched a sweeping probe of the violent online network known as “764.” (Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
In August, the FBI’s Los Angeles field office announced the arrest of a suspected 764 member.
The suspect, 27-year-old Dong Hwan Kim, was accused by several minor females of coercing them into sending him videos and photos of themselves engaging in sexual acts, according to FBI Los Angeles. After enticing the underage girls into making child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Kim would allegedly demand they send more explicit content and threaten to send naked photographs to the victims’ family and others or post them online.
The FBI Los Angeles field office noted that in a search, agents found several CSAM videos and photos in the suspect’s possession, as well as evidence that he shared the content with others. Kim was charged with possession of child pornography and faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., listen to testimony by FBI Director Kash Patel during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” in Hart building on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
On Dec. 9, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced three bills targeting sentencing laws, violent online criminal networks and child sextortion.
One of the bills, known as the Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online Act (ECCHO Act), would create a “penalty of up to life in prison if the offense involves the actual or attempted suicide by the victim or the death of another person, as well as a 30-year maximum penalty for harmful conduct that does not involve a death,” according to a statement from Grassley’s office.
In addition to the ECCHO Act, the senators also introduced the Sentencing Accountability for Exploitation Act (SAFE Act) and the Stop Sextortion Act. The SAFE Act aims to change sentencing guidelines for CSAM so it “accounts for modern indicators of especially dangerous conduct.” The Stop Sextortion Act would target offenders who “threaten to distribute CSAM to intimidate, extort or coerce children.” Under the bill, the maximum penalty for these offenses would be increased from five to 10 years.
