WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – Federal court filings lay out what prosecutors say was a years‑long conspiracy tied to Plymouth‑Canton Educational Park, where three former students are accused of conspiring to steal “personal, private images” of women for their own “enjoyment,” and in some instances posting those images “for the world to access without their knowledge or consent.”
Whispered about to some as the “P‑CEP nudes” case, it centers on women who once walked the same high‑school halls as the men charged.
Federal documents said those men, identified in filings and on their LinkedIn and professional pages as Daniel Bihn, an engineer; Michael Justus, working in digital tech and AI; and Bernard Rice, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, are accused of using a Russian website and the anonymous messaging app Discord to trade and post nude photos.
Some of those images were allegedly manipulated and hacked from Snapchat, including content taken from its “My Eyes Only” feature, which requires a passcode to access.
Anonymous board, hacked accounts
According to the filings, the case began in August of 2020, when a woman in Illinois reported a thread of nude photos of women, some of them minors at the time the photos were taken.
Federal agents zeroed in on posts tied to P‑CEP, repeatedly finding the same usernames.
“Triangle Guy,” a variant of user “ΔS,” is identified in filings as Bihn, whom prosecutors call “the most skilled at hacking.”
Justus, using the handle “VZ,” is identified as the one posting some of the nude pictures. Rice, using aliases like “tiktok1,” his attorney writes, had fallen into the “traps of depravity” after being viewed as a “nerd” and a “loser.”
But federal prosecutors said private messages show how he “worked within the group.”
In 2017 or 2018, according to the feds, Bihn was invited by Justus to join a Discord group that included Justus, Rice, and Bihn.
There, the three of them shared “unlawfully obtained nude images of females” who had attended P-CEP.
Because of Bihn’s hacking skills, Justus and Rice then allegedly gave Bihn lists of former female classmates whose social media accounts they wanted Bihn to hack.
The women had graduated from P-CEP between 2008 and 2013.
Federal agents said one woman found three nude images of herself, allegedly posted by Bihn, as multiple others reported finding nude and semi-nude photos.
The FBI said one woman posted an image of herself on Instagram when she was 17 years old.
In the original image, she was wearing a bathing suit, but the posted image had been manipulated to make it look like she was nude.
The image was posted by username “Anonymous,” who stated in the post: “Fakes but best I got.”
The chats
In an August 2019 Discord conversation quoted in a sentencing memo, Justus and Rice allegedly discussed a “list” of women for Bihn to target:
Justus: “Very interested to see your list and see if there’s any blatant misses on my end”
Rice: “mine’s not extensive at all; jus got aroudn to it lol”
Justus: “lol lemme check dis s***; [nickname of potential victim], hell yeah lol; underrated [name of potential victim] but she’s cute; nice add”
Rice: “good stuff”
Justus: “[name of potential victim] f***, yeah didnt think of her
Discord records showed Rice also asking for images of a specific potential victim.
Rice allegedly asked on June 18, 2021: “Any chance you have this girl? she used to date one of my friends and had a huge a**?”
The filings said federal agents raided Bihn’s home in January 2021 and seized electronics.
Later that year, federal agents searched Justus’s home in Illinois and connected Rice to the online chats.
On Sept. 3, 2024, the group was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and related computer activity.
Victim impact statements
One victim, according to court documents, said, “When I found out my private photos have been posted online, I began having daily panic attacks multiple times per day, could not leave my house, and had to start weekly therapy. I’m still working through this trauma to this day.”
Another woman said the “defamation of character as well as exposure of privacy, invasion of privacy, and personal information led to emotional trauma and damage.”
Federal prosecutors then said the sentence in this case should “send a message to Bihn and to others who have or would seek to engage in this behavior that courts take these offenses seriously” and will impose punishments “consistent with the gravity of the offense.”
Guilty pleas and sentences
Bihn, Rice, and Justus all pleaded guilty, according to court records.
Bihn pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers and was sentenced to time served, two years of supervised release, and to pay $6,079.93 in restitution.
Rice pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining information from a protected computer and was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $500 fine.
Justus pleaded guilty to two counts of computer-related fraud.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10, 2026, at 2 p.m.
The defense
In Rice’s case, his sentencing memo included about two dozen character reference letters on his behalf.
He called his actions “the biggest mistake of his life,” acknowledging that instead of reporting or discouraging Bihn, he helped create a list of “his most beautiful/voluptuous (i.e., ‘big butts’) former classmates” to send to Bihn in hopes of obtaining sexually explicit images or videos.
Rice’s attorney said Rice “never hacked into any social media accounts and never posted any hacked images,” and said his role could be viewed as minimal or minor.
Bihn’s attorney did not dispute the basic facts of the case but said Bihn “did not obtain any financial gain,” has no prior criminal history, and “cooperated fully.”
The memo also said Bihn had a “good upbringing” with a strong focus on academics and extracurricular activities. He also earned the rank of Eagle Scout in high school.
The filing said Bihn’s parents, siblings, and girlfriend “have pledged their support, but also to hold him accountable,” and that “nobody, not Mr. Bihn and not his family, has attempted to minimize or rationalize his behavior.”