CVLT (organization)

Background

CVLT was created in 2019 by a then-23-year-old business school student named Rohan Rane, an Indian immigrant living in Antibes, France. Reportedly, he was bored from COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and decided to create his own community on Discord to chat with people, named CVLT. Rohan said the community was a "place where he came to proclaim his hatred of Jews and Muslims", with members of CVLT holding neo-Nazi and fascist ideologies. CVLT amassed over 150 members, some of whom were not able to be identified by the FBI during the investigation.^[7] An FBI agent became interested in CVLT in the spring of 2020 as he was investigating a 15-year-old American girl who unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide by slashing her throat after communicating with Rohan. During the investigation, the agent learned that the girl sent Rohan nude photos of herself after he formed a "romantic relationship" with her and gained her trust. After obtaining the photos, Rohan blackmailed the girl into sending him additional photos, threatening to send the original photos to the girl's family members if she didn't comply. The agent began working with French law enforcement, prompting a judicial investigation on October 6, 2020, by OCRVP. Rohan was taken into custody the next year, on April 6, 2021, and is currently awaiting sentencing while being held in solitary confinement.^[13][14] Rane turned 28-years old in 2025 and is being charged with "acts of torture and barbarity", "corruption of minors in an organized gang" and "extortion in an organized gang".^[15]

During Rohan's arrest, the police searched his home and discovered more than a dozen videos of his victims on his phone and computer. The recordings showed young girls between the ages of 11 and 16, filming themselves committing acts of self-harm, including cutting themselves, strangling themselves with belts, and drinking bleach while crying. While in custody, Rohan described himself as a "psychopath devoid of any emotion". Rohan also described himself as being interested in fascism and the Aryan Brotherhood, and said that he felt excited by seeing "blood and violence" from his victims. Le Figaro reported that Rohan authored a guide titled "How to Get a Girl", in which he described himself as a guru and bragged about attracting dozens of young girls. The guide explained his methods of attracting his victims, including threatening to ruin the lives of his "prey" and forcing them to commit suicide, eat feces, and mutilate themselves by shoving blunt objects into their genitalia. Rohan also said that all "western feminists" have rape fantasies.^[16][17] Rohan was permitted access to his phone during his incarceration, which he used to continue his activities. In an interview with investigators, Rohan claimed that all of the girls filmed were adults who performed the actions willingly and that all acts were staged, including their expressions of pain.^[18] In one interrogation, he claimed there was no connection between CVLT and 764, and said that he had a hatred of humanity.^[19] He confessed to targeting girls of Jewish and Muslim origin, as well as "feminists who denounced Hitler or Mussolini".^[20]

Organization

In a Reddit post before his arrest, Rohan described CVLT as "dark and sadistic", adding that he made his "slaves" cut his name on their bodies and that everything he did was "legal". Rane added that the "ultimate goal" of CVLT was to "create an endless supply of masochistic people to satisfy my sadism and my cult is existing for that very reason".^[21][22] Two men, Colin Walker and Kaleb Merritt acted as leaders of CVLT, and were responsible for hosting and maintaining CVLT's online servers and controlling its membership. Both men were arrested and charged with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise in 2025.^[4] Kaleb Merritt was one of the first CVLT's members and a prominent child groomer within the group. Merritt used the online nicknames "eterrorist", "o9a", and "evil". One of CVLT's affiliated groups, led by Bradley Cadenhead, broke off and became known as 764. Before creating 764, Cadenhead produced child exploitation videos of him mutilating himself and committing animal abuse under the online names "brad764", "felix" and "felix764" through the CVLT community. Some splinter groups of CVLT have neo-Nazi and accelerationist ideologies, mimicking the style of the Terrorgram network. Both CVLT and 764 are successors of the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), and share its ideologies (neo-Nazism, satanism and western esotericism).^[12] Le Monde said both organizations had many members who pledged allegiance to O9A.^[19]

Rohan stated that there was a hierarchy within CVLT, and that members of the group were promoted to higher "ranks" based on the severity of illegal content they uploaded.^[19] Rohan used Instagram and other social medias to promote CVLT, including Roblox. After a victim joined the community, he manipulated them into sending sexual photos of themselves before using the photos to blackmail them.^[21][23] CVLT targeted mostly vulnerable children and made them watch violent and pornographic videos to desensitize them to violence and sadism,^[24] including animals being tortured to death or women being raped on camera.^[25] Rohan forced his victims to cut his name or Nazi swastikas into their skin, masturbate using knives, drink bleach, or eat their own hair. If they did not comply, he threatened to reveal the photos to the girls' relatives, with other members of CVLT occasionally carrying out the threats. All acts were recorded on webcams and broadcast live on the CVLT Discord server.^[14][26] Other acts included victims punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, victims being swatted, or being forced to commit suicide on livestreams.^[27][22] According to a prosecutor, other unnamed suspects may have participated in CVLT's activities.^[24]

Throughout its history, the organization managed to sextort approximately 16 children around the world, including two children living in San Bernardino County, California.^[28][9] The home countries of victims included Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, and Estonia.^[18] Martín Estrada, a former prosecutor in California, said that there may be hundreds of unidentified victims based on the amount of child sexual abuse videos CVLT produced.^[22] According to police, victims were known to have a history of sexual abuse-induced trauma or mental health issues. CVLT was a member of The Com, an international cybercriminal network made of various groups, with extremist groups of The Com being known to carry out similar crimes. CVLT was described by law enforcement as a neo-Nazi group, however an unnamed cyber security expert quoted by Rolling Stone said that the group only used neo-Nazism for shock value and to appear more provocative while not genuinely believing in Nazism.^[29][30] Le Monde described neo-Nazi aesthetics of CVLT and 764 as "confused and poorly understood", saying they existed only to portray "acceptance" for their members.^[19]