A Hilo man who founded a ring of online child predators has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Kalana Limkin, 20, received the statutory maximum sentence for possession of child pornography on Thursday, more than a year after he pled guilty to the charge in February of 2025.
The FBI began investigating Limkin in 2023, having identified him as an associate of a pair of online child sex exploitation groups called CVLT and 764. In particular, Limkin was identified as the founder of a splinter organization, called “Cultist,” which, according to an FBI affidavit, “focused on more specific behaviors, such as promoting child pornography, child exploitation, sexual extortion, and trafficking … manipulation, animal cruelty and self-harm of minors.”
A report by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawai‘i described these groups as “nihilistic violent extremists,” who “collaborated to victimize children in a systematic attempt to trigger social collapse and topple the current world order.”
According to the FBI affidavit, Limkin had contacted a minor in 2023 through the now-defunct chat service Omegle — the website would shut down later that year because of a lawsuit alleging the site knowingly allowed minors to interact with predators. Through Omegle, Limkin purportedly showed the minor images and video of child pornography, and asked the minor for explicit photographs of herself.
The FBI searched Limkin’s Hilo residence and interviewed him in December of 2023. Limkin admitted to being the founder of Cultist and possessing child pornography, which investigators duly confirmed.
While many court records pertaining to the specifics of Limkin’s online presence have been sealed, several documents allude to further actions, such as using explicit images of another minor to attempt (unsuccessfully) to goad her into killing herself. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that Limkin was recorded on a video chat telling others that “We want her to die … That’s the whole point of this.”
U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said in a statement Friday that “Limkin represents a growing and depraved group of violent extremists who target vulnerable juveniles online for the sick pleasure they derive from causing their young impressionable victims to commit acts of self-harm.”
In 2025, Limkin, then 19 years old, pled guilty to the charge of possession of child pornography. However, in June, he attempted to recant that plea, claiming that his attorney at the time — who withdrew as his attorney about six months after Limkin’s plea — had led him to believe he would not receive the maximum possible sentence.
“At best, his prior attorney … advised him that he would likely be facing perhaps not more than five years,” read Limkin’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea. “The advice was more like, ‘I would be surprised if you were sentenced to more than five years.’”
U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor denied Limkin’s request.
Limkin’s 10-year sentence will be followed by 20 years of supervised release.
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