Nude Photo Fraud, Cyberstalking Charges For Ex-Chicago Coach

Chicago IL

07 April, 2021

7:00 PM

Description

CHICAGO — A former college track and field coach was arrested Wednesday in Chicago on wire fraud and cyberstalking charges in connection with schemes to acquire nude photos of college students he coached, federal prosecutors said. Steve Waithe, 28, of Chicago, worked as a track and field coach up until last year at various institutions, including Concordia University Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Northeastern University in Boston, according to charging documents filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court. Waithe has been under FBI investigation following allegations he used his job as a coach at Northeastern in the 2018-19 school year to steal compromising photos of women on the team and attempt to extort them into sending him compromising images of themselves, according to an affidavit in from Mark Wilson, an FBI agent specializing in cybercrimes. Multiple reports of sexual harassment filed against Waithe during his first semester at Northeastern led the Boston private school to conduct a Title IX investigation into his conduct, Wilson said in the affidavit. Waithe left the position in February 2019 following the conclusion of the investigation, according to the agent. During his four-month stint as coach at Northeastern, students would let Waithe use their cellphones to record them at practice and at meets. In at least one instance, Wilson alleged, he was seen scrolling through a female athlete's phone while appearing to be recording video. After leaving Northeastern, Waithe was employed as an assistant track and field coach at Concordia University Chicago from September 2019 to January 2020, according to a statement from university officials, there were no reports of misconduct during his time there. University representatives are "proactively reaching out" to everyone he coached to notify them of the charged and provide an opportunity to cooperate with federal investigators and would provide support and counseling services to anyone affected, the statement said. Records at IIT indicate Waithe worked as a temporary assistant coach from February 2017 to June 2018, before starting at Northeastern. University officials were not aware of the investigation until the charges were unsealed Wednesday, a spokesperson told Patch. Starting in February 2020, about a year after he stopped working at Northeastern, Waithe launched a wire fraud scheme aimed at tricking student athletes at the school into sending him nude or semi-nude photos of themselves, according to the FBI agent. Waithe approached at least six women via anonymous Instagram accounts and sent them compromising photos of themselves that he claimed to have found online on the "dark web" and offered to help take them down if they would send him additional such photos, Wilson alleged. None of the women volunteered any photographs, but one of the student-athletes he coached at Northeastern reported her Snapchat account had been hacked in October 2020 via a fake password reset email just before she and her boyfriend were contacted by an Instagram account controlled by Waithe, according to the agent. The day before the hack, Waithe's internet history reveals a search of "how to hack Snapchat with a username and phone number" and visits to web pages titled, "How to Hack Someones Snapchat the Easy Way" and "How to Hack Someones Snapchat Account Password Online," the FBI agent alleged. During the course of the investigation into Waithe's Instagram accounts and after obtaining search warrants for his accounts, investigators discovered a different criminal scheme with at least 11 other victims, according to Wilson's 15-page affidavit. Under the purported premise of an "athlete research" or "body development" study, WAITHE has emailed prospective victims from one of his Google accounts using the persona of "Katie Janovich", mentioned above. The emails contain an introduction like, "My name is Katie, Steve told me to reach out to you in hopes for you to help us with our research!" The emails describe a phony study for athletes and request information relating to height, weight, body fat, and diet habits. The emails include a "most important" request for the victims to send photos of themselves in a "uniform or bathing suit to show as much skin as possible." The emails include this explanation: "Most women have just sent a bunch of pictures in a bra and a thong because it shows the most. Regular deep cut bras are best if you want to go topless that's best women have done that too because the easiest places the body usually shows changes is the butt and the breasts." In addition to "Privacy Protector" and "Katie Janovich," Waithe would also use the name "Kathryn Svoboda," according to the charges. More than 300 nude and semi-nude images of victims have been identified in Waithe's Google accounts, according to the agent. No attorney information is listed for Waithe, who could not be reached for comment after his court appearance Thursday afternoon. In addition to IIT, Northeastern and Concordia, Waithe also worked at Penn State University and the University of Tennessee, according to the FBI. Federal prosecutors asked anyone who believes they may have victims about the case to contact the U.S. attorney's office in Boston.