CVLT

CVLT was a Discord-based child exploitation network founded in 2019 by Rohan Rane, a then-23-year-old Indian national attending a top business school in Antibes, France. CVLT developed and deployed the sextortion-to-self-harm coercion model that Bradley Chance Cadenhead subsequently adapted when founding the 764 network in 2020-2021. CVLT is documented by researchers as the direct organizational predecessor of 764, connected to it through a single contact between Cadenhead and a CVLT member in a Minecraft server.¹

Founding and Methods

Rane founded CVLT in 2019. Beginning with a small community of a few hundred members, he recruited underage girls from around the world into a Discord community, obtained compromising sexual photographs and videos from them through social engineering, and then used that material as leverage to blackmail victims into escalating acts of self-harm, up to and including suicidal behavior. The acts were recorded on webcam and broadcast live within the CVLT Discord server, functioning both as content and as internal currency establishing Rane's status and the network's cohesion.¹

The indictment (United States v. Rane et al., 2:25-cr-00040) refers to the platform as "Platform D," understood to be Discord. Coercion tactics documented in DOJ filings and press releases included compelling victims to cut themselves, drink their own urine, punch themselves, use racial slurs against themselves, and carve CVLT members' names into their skin with razor blades. The terminal escalation was pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream. The group targeted vulnerable girls, often those with a history of mental health struggles or prior sexual abuse, exposing them first to neo-Nazi and violent extremist content to normalize degradation before direct coercion began.²

CVLT operated from at least 2019 to 2022. Federal prosecutors charged that Rane, Collin Walker, and Kaleb Merritt acted as leaders and administrators, hosting and running CVLT servers, controlling membership and access, and directing victims during the creation of extortion videos. Clint Borge participated as a member and directed and instructed victims during coercion sessions. Two unnamed minor co-conspirators are referenced in the indictment, one of whom was also a victim.³

Early CVLT leaders including Walker and Merritt adopted O9A-influenced online aliases: Walker used "WRATH/O9A.WRATH" and Merritt used "eTerror/o9a.evil," signaling the group's integration of neo-Nazi occultism alongside nihilism and pedophilia as core ideological principles.⁴

Transmission to 764 and Downstream Networks

Cadenhead, a 15-year-old school dropout in Stephenville, Texas, encountered a CVLT member in a Minecraft server and through that conversation absorbed CVLT's methods. Cadenhead then founded 764 in 2020-2021, naming it after local ZIP codes 76401/76402 and using Discord as his initial platform. The CVLT-to-764 transmission through Minecraft is the documented origin event of 764 as a distinct network.¹

Following Cadenhead's 2021 arrest and the 2025 federal prosecution of CVLT's leadership, a splinter group called CVLTIST emerged as a named downstream entity within The Com ecosystem. CVLT's victim count and operational methods were explicitly cited by NCITE (National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha) alongside CVLT's contemporaneous precursor Greggy's Cult (also called the Cult of Greg) in documenting 31 individuals publicly charged with federal crimes across the three connected networks as of December 2025.⁵

French Investigation and Rane's Arrest

An FBI agent became aware of CVLT in spring 2020 while investigating a 15-year-old American girl who had unsuccessfully attempted suicide under coercion. The FBI passed findings to Police Nationale (France), which initiated a judicial investigation on October 6, 2020 through the OCRVP (Office Central pour la Répression des Violences aux Personnes). Rane was arrested in France on April 6, 2021, and has been in French custody since 2022. In France he faces charges of "acts of torture and barbarity," "corruption of minors in an organized gang," and "extortion in an organized gang." As of May 2026 he remains in French custody pending extradition to the United States.³

Federal Prosecution (United States v. Rane, 2:25-cr-00040)

The federal investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, HSI Cherry Hill (New Jersey), and HSI Honolulu, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, Henry County Sheriff's Office (Virginia), Iowa State University Police Department (ISUPD), and Police Nationale (France).³

The Iowa State link was critical. In November 2020, an Iowa State University freshman reported to ISUPD that she was being blackmailed with images taken when she was 16. ISUPD Officer Kami Feld conducted the investigation, issuing subpoenas to electronic service providers including Google, PayPal, Venmo, Instagram, and Facebook. When the subpoenas returned IP activity from Hawaii, Oregon, and California, and revealed a digital wallet address at 4 Goldfield Road in Honolulu, Feld cross-referenced the address and identified it as the residence of Clint Borge, the fourth core leader, whose Discord alias "Whoops" had been known to federal investigators without a real-world identity.⁶

The grand jury returned the indictment on January 17, 2025, in the Central District of California. The indictment was unsealed approximately February 4-5, 2025. All four defendants were charged in a single count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g), carrying a mandatory minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life imprisonment. The enterprise theory required proof that the defendants (1) violated specified child exploitation statutes, (2) across three or more separate incidents, (3) involving more than one victim, (4) in concert with three or more other persons. The four named defendants and two unnamed minor co-conspirators together constituted the enterprise.³

Walker and Borge were physically arrested in New Jersey and Hawaii respectively when the indictment was unsealed. Merritt was already incarcerated in Virginia. Rane remained in French custody pending extradition.³

Plea Record

Collin Walker pleaded guilty in October 2025. Clint Borge pleaded guilty in December 2025. Kaleb Merritt pleaded guilty on March 26, 2026. All three pleaded to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(g). Judge Hernan D. Vera of the Central District of California scheduled all three sentencing hearings: Walker for January 29, 2026; Borge for March 12, 2026; Merritt for January 7, 2027. Walker and Borge sentencing outcomes had not been publicly announced by DOJ as of May 2026 (their hearings having preceded the Merritt plea). Rohan Rane, as of May 2026, remains in French custody awaiting extradition and has not entered a US plea.⁷