Man gets maximum federal prison time for 'purely evil' cyberstalking of Minnesota college student

A California man has received the maximum prison sentence for cyberstalking a Minnesota college student and a concurrent term for stealing her identity and posing as her online as a woman in pursuit of sex.

Ki Cheung Yau, 28, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after pleading guilty to creating accounts on various websites including social media platforms, dating websites and pornography websites using the woman's name, photos and other personally identifying information to pretend to be someone soliciting submissive or violent sexual encounters.

Yau received a five-year prison sentence on the cyberstalking count and a concurrent 4 ¹⁄_2-year term on the identity theft count. As part of his plea agreement, he also admitted to cyberstalking seven other people elsewhere in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom from 2017 to 2021. Once out of prison, he'll be on supervised release for three years.

Electronic devices seized by law enforcement included one computer hard drive with more than "400,000 image, video and screenshot files categorized by victims' names and social media IDs," the prosecution said in a court filing shortly before sentencing.

Yau was living in Burbank, Calif., at the time he was cyberstalking the Minnesota college student he had never met. He moved to the United States in 2014 from Hong Kong and he obtained a master's in playwriting and screenwriting, according to court records. He found work in the entertainment industry as a television production assistant intern and associate staff writer, the records continued.

At sentencing on Dec. 16, Judge Wilhelmina Wright said that Yau's actions against the woman were "predatory and purely evil [and showed] a disregard for the safety and well-being of the victims and disregard for the law."

Federal sentencing guidelines recommended that Yau receive a sentence of two to 2 ¹⁄₂ years in prison. However, in imposing the statutory maximum for cyberstalking and topping the prosecution's request for a four-year sentence, Wright told Yau, "The injuries you cause do not heal easily."

Over the course of the cyberstalking, which ran from January 2020 to November 2021, Yau tried to help strangers locate the woman and follow through on his deceptive invitations for dominating and violent sexual encounters.

In one instance, a man looking for sex went to the woman's home at 1:30 a.m., rang the doorbell and asked for her by name. The woman's roommate told the man she was not home. Yau's cyberstalking also led to strangers directly messaging the woman in response to explicit posts that she did not make.

Her family and friends' names, photos, and contact information also were included in Yau's stalking scheme.

Yau's actions forced the woman at first to install a security camera at the home, then find a new place and change her phone number amid a "deluge of contact from strangers," a prosecution court filing read.

Prior to sentencing, defense attorney Matthew Mankey argued in a court filing for Yau to receive a term near or below the lower end of federal guidelines. Mankey pointed out that after leaving prison his client will be deported and sent back to Hong Kong, which is under the control of Communist China. Yau's student visa has expired, court records showed.

"It's uncertain how Chinese authorities will deal with someone deported from the United States for engaging in criminal behavior," the attorney wrote.

Mankey also raised concerns about Yau being a target for physical attack while in prison. He said an assault in a federal medical facility in Oklahoma, where he was moved for a psychological evaluation, left him with a broken eye socket.

"If Mr. Yau can be victimized in a federal medical facility, he most certainly will be [preyed] upon in a federal prison," the attorney argued.

Yau currently remains in federal custody in the Sherburne County jail.