Defendant convicted at trial of sending thousands of horrific messages to victims, lawyers, police and prosecutors
SEATTLE – A 33-year-old Seattle man previously employed as a privacy consultant was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 9 years in prison for conspiracy to engage in cyberstalking, three counts of cyberstalking in violation of a criminal order, and three counts of cyberstalking, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Sumit Garg was indicted in March 2021. He has been in custody at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac since that time. At sentencing U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour told the victims, “I can’t give you the level of protection for the length of time that you deserve…I can’t give you blanket protection for 30-40 years.”
“The cyberstalking activities of this defendant are unparalleled in this District and indeed nationwide. Through thousands of email and text messages Mr. Garg threatened violence against his victims -- including police and prosecutors. He attempted to make it appear his victims were the perpetrators of the stalking. Court orders and jail time did not stop him,” U.S. Attorney Gorman said. “Federal detention finally stopped him, and this sentence will protect the public for years to come.”
“Justice was served today. The U.S. Secret Service is satisfied with the outcome of this case, which is a culmination of the work of motivated agents and analysts, applying their skillsets and tools to bring an end to an unprecedented cyberstalking campaign against multiple victims,” said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Glen Peterson said. “I hope the victims can find some closure to the nightmares they endured during Mr. Garg’s relentless reign of harassment.”
According to records in the case and testimony at trial, in 2020, Garg began an extensive campaign of threats and sexually explicit messaging and posts about a woman who used to share an apartment with Garg’s wife. Using personal information Garg accessed after he moved into the apartment with his spouse, Garg threatened and tormented the former roommate.
In April 2020, the victim reported the harassment to police. Following this, Garg and his wife tried to make it appear that they were the harassment victims and made false police reports blaming the actual victim.
Garg also used his computer skills to threaten multiple people in the former roommate’s life, including her uncle who represented her in obtaining a civil protection order; her boyfriend; the Seattle Police Detective who investigated the threats; and even the Deputy Prosecuting Attorney who prosecuted Garg for his illegal stalking conduct. Garg used his computer skills to try to hide who was sending the threats or making the posts. The stalking campaign also grew increasingly violent, ultimately coming to include gruesome threats of rape, torture, and death. Over time, Garg’s stalking campaign involved thousands of emails sent from scores of accounts set up for the purpose of stalking.
At one point in his scheme, Garg was videotaped in the lobby of the victim’s new apartment building at the same time photos were taken and sent of that location to frighten the victim.
Garg enlisted his wife in the scheme – instructing her to send harassing emails to herself and others while he was jailed to make it appear someone else was doing the harassment campaign. He told his wife to destroy clothes he wore when he was in the lobby of the ex-roommate’s apartment building. His wife did send emails but did not destroy the clothes and ultimately cooperated with investigators.
In her trial testimony, Garg’s wife said she finally felt free to tell the truth when he was booked on federal charges and would not be returning to their home to abuse her verbally and physically.
In their sentencing memo, prosecutors noted that Garg had never accepted responsibility for any of his criminal actions: “While Garg appears to have delighted in his victims’ suffering, he appears to be utterly incapable of empathizing with others. With an apparently insatiable desire to even the score, Garg took a simple rent dispute between roommates, and escalated it into a massive cyberstalking campaign against an ever-growing number of victims, making grotesque and violent threats that are almost impossible to fathom.”
Three victims spoke at sentencing. “What made this case singular in my mind was first, the unprecedented scope; second, the constant escalation; and lastly, the attitude displayed by the defendant that he was smarter than everyone else and his belief that he would not be caught,” remarked one victim, an experienced prosecutor.
A second victim said, “I’m not sure if I will ever regain a sense of normalcy and security that I once took for granted.”
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service with assistance from the Seattle Police Department.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Friedman and Senior Trial Attorney Anthony V. Teelucksingh of DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.