By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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A federal judge in Honolulu on Monday ordered that a 41-year-old Pahoa man be held without bail pending his transfer to Los Angeles to face a charge of engaging in child exploitation.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Wes Reber Porter ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to promptly notify officials of the U.S. Court for the Central District of California when they arrive with Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge in order to schedule court proceedings.

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Borge, who was arrested Jan. 30 by federal agents, was indicted Jan. 17 by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.

He and three other men — Collin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, N.J.; Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28, of Antibes, France; and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas — are accused of being members of CVLT (pronounced “cult”), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism and pedophilia as its core principles, from at least 2019 to 2022.

Walker was arrested Jan. 30 in New Jersey.

Rane previously was charged with several child exploitation and related offenses in France and has been in French custody since 2022. Merritt is currently in Virginia state custody, serving a 50-year sentence for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021.

The indictment accuses Borge of being a CVLT member since at least 2020.

The group is accused of victimizing at least 16 minors around the world, including two in Southern California, grooming the minors online and then coercing them to produce sexual abuse material and images of self-harm.

According to the indictment, CVLT members “participated in their online child exploitation activities because they wanted to create an army of sadist followers.“

Borge, who the indictment said was known by the online names of “Whoops” and “Jordan” and the others used their own computer servers known as “Platform D” to coerce the children to “self-produce” child pornography.

Borge is accused of coercing juveniles known as Minor Victim 4, Minor Victim 9, Minor Victim 11, Minor Victim 13, Minor Victim 14 and Minor Victim 16 “to engage in sexual activity for which a person can be charged with a criminal offense … .”

Minor Victims 13 and 14 were in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties in California, within the district the indictment covers.

If convicted, Borge and the others would face a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence and a statutory maximum sentence of life in prison.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.