4 members of neo-Nazi group charged with sexually exploiting children

Four men have been charged with participating in a neo-Nazi child exploitation enterprise that groomed and then coerced minors to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and images of self-harm. The group allegedly victimized at least 16 minors around the world, including two in Southern California.

Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41, of Pahoa, Hawaii, were arrested on Thursday morning as part of an indictment for engaging in a child exploitation enterprise, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Two other defendants who are already in custody, Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28, of Antibes, France, and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas, were also charged as part of the indictment filed in January 17.

According to the indictment, from at least 2019 to 2022, Rane, Walker, Merritt, and Borge were members of CVLT (pronounced “cult”), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles. Members of the international enterprise engaged in online child sexual exploitation offenses and trafficked CSAM.

Rane, Walker, and Merritt acted as leaders and administrators in the CVLT enterprise, hosting and running CVLT online servers and controlling membership for the group.

CVLT members worked collectively to entice and coerce children to self-produce sexual material on a platform run by CVLT members where they groomed children for the eventual production of CSAM through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content. CVLT specifically targeted vulnerable victims, including ones suffering from mental health challenges or a history of sexual abuse.

Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts, including cutting and eating their own hair, drinking their urine, punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, and using razor blades to carve CVLT members’ names into their skin. CVLT members’ coercion escalated to pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream.

When victims hesitated, resisted, or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends. For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats.

Rane previously was charged with several child exploitation and related offenses in France and has been in French custody since 2022. Merritt is currently in Virginia state custody, serving a 50-year sentence for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021.

If convicted, the accused would face a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison and a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison.