Ex-Coach Accused Of Tricking Athletes Into Sending Nude Photos

BOSTON — Federal prosecutors are accusing a former Northeastern University track coach of using phony social media accounts to trick women on his team into sending nude and semi-nude photos of themselves.

FBI agents arrested former Northeastern University track coach Steve Waithe, 28, of Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday morning. Waithe is also accused of stalking at least one woman. He is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Illinois Wednesday afternoon on charges of wire fraud and cyberstalking and will have a Boston court appearance scheduled for a later date.

Waithe was Northeastern's track coach from October 2018 until February 2019. In a statement, acting U.S. Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell’s office said Waithe used the aliases "Katie Janovich" and "Kathryn Svoboda," among others, to set up phony social media accounts he used to contact athletes. Prosecutors say he told the women he had seen compromising photos of them online, then offered to help them get them removed from the internet. He told the athletes he would need the athletes to send him nude or semi-nude photos, so he could do "reverse image searches."

Court documents also accuse him of stalking one athlete between June and October of last year. When investigators looked at Waithe's internet search history, they found visits to websites with titles like "Can anyone trace my fake Instagram account back to me?"

Mendell’s office said people who believe they are a victim on Waithe's should visit this website.