A former employee of the U.S. State Department living in Atlanta has pleaded guilty in federal court here to charges of engaging in a long-running sexual extortion scheme involving computer hacking, cyberstalking and email phishing, federal prosecutors in Washington and Atlanta announced Wednesday.

Michael C. Ford, 36, pleaded guilty to 17 criminal charges associated with what prosecutors described as a two-year international “sextortion” campaign that was intended to force Ford's young female victims to provide him with personal information as well as sexually explicit videos of others, prosecutors said. Ford is scheduled to be sentenced in February by U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia.

Ford's victims included college students, many of whom were members or sororities or aspiring models, federal prosecutors said. The defendant “tormented numerous women by threatening to humiliate them unless they provided him with sexually explicit photos and videos, and in some cases, he followed through on his threats,” U.S. Attorney John Horn said in announcing Ford's guilty plea.