A 19-year-old former Berkeley High School student was arrested earlier this week in connection with an alleged hacking and blackmail scheme involving nude photos of underage girls, some of whom he went to school with.

High school girls in Berkeley, as well as from public and private schools in Alameda, Contra Costa, and Marin counties, report being "targeted" by a hacker who was initially only identified by the handle "willkonlo." As Berkeleyside reports, via the Berkeley Police Department and the FBI, the hacker began last summer by hacking the Snapchat accounts of several Berkeley High students, and then attempting to extort more nude photos of the girls via text. Berkeley High School officials reached out to the police on May 10.

Police arrested 19-year-old Liam Burgmann near his Berkeley hills home on Monday. As KTVU reports, in addition to finding evidence of blackmail, police say they found, through search warrants, that Burgmann was in possession of names, account information, and contact information for over 100 girls, many between the ages of 15 and 17. Additionally, investigators found Burgmann in possession of around 130 video clips considered child pornography, some featuring children as young as three years old.

Burgmann allegedly "targeted" specific schools, though it's not clear how many of the victims he knew personally. Police say that he "successfully obtained underage photographs/videos by illegal means" from 17 Bay Area high school girls. As KPIX reports, he has been charged with felony possession of child pornography, multiple counts of felony accessing computer systems, felony identity theft, and multiple counts of distributing private intimate images as revenge porn.

"This is truly predatory behavior," says BPD Officer Byron White, in a statement to KTVU.

Per Berkeleyside, court documents indicate that Burgmann's alleged hacking began in August 2020, and continued through May 26 of this year. In total, he was allegedly in possession of over 600 images of child pornography, including 10 or more images of children under the age of 12.

Burgmann's LinkedIn page indicates he attended Berkeley High fro 2017 to 2021, but Berkeleyside was unable to confirm whether he graduated.

"The safety and the right to privacy of our students are priorities at BUSD, and we have found this incident to be serious and concerning," says Berkeley Unified School District spokesperson Trish McDermott. "We have alerted our counseling department to be prepared to offer immediate support to impacted students and will continue to cooperate with the Berkeley police department as necessary."

Burgmann was taken into custody at Santa Rita Jail on Monday, and remained in custody on Thursday. His attorney, David Cohen, tells Berkeleyside that a judge reduced Burgmann's bail from $1 million to $220,000 on Thursday, and it's unclear if he has been released on bail since then.

Cohen cautioned that he has yet to review any of the evidence released by law enforcement, and that his client should be considered innocent until convicted by a court of law. "What they say on the first day is a flash grenade," Cohen tells Berkeleyside. "We have to look at what actually is here."

Photo via Berkeley PD