A Bellevue SWAT team arrested an Issaquah man on four counts of human trafficking, money laundering and leading an organized crime ring where abused teenagers were coerced into participating in sexually oriented online chat rooms.
The charges allege Nikita Tyukalo, 21, who stands 6-foot-7, beat the young women, strangled them, held guns to their heads and forced them to create sexual content for up to 20 hours a day at a Bellevue mansion” and other Eastside addresses, according to Bellevue police. The women reported he fed them the prescription amphetamine Adderall “like it was candy” to keep them up.
“The way they were working us,” one young woman reportedly told police, “it was a way to make yourself happy in a bad position, because if you weren’t happy, that’s when the (expletive) went down.”
Several women reported being “fat shamed” to the point of starving themselves. They also reported being spat upon or having drinks or food poured over their heads.
“When speaking about physical violence, (one woman) stated that Tyukalo would slap her, pull her hair, forced to the ground by her hair and threaten her with firearms that were present throughout the home,” the charges allege.
The charges also name two unindicted co-conspirators, age 20 and 22, in connection with the operation of two “talent agencies,” Nova Talent Management and Luxe Allure, which pulled in as much as $260,000 a month while often refusing to pay the women who were making the content. The alleged co-conspirators also helped recruit other women and keep them in line through intimidation and violence. The other two men haven’t been charged with crimes.
In one instance, the charges allege, a woman who had been caught chatting online with a man who was not a customer was forced to crawl naked on her hands and knees in front of the other young women while Tyukalo repeatedly cocked a gun and pointed it at her head. According to the charges, when one of the women threatened suicide, Tyukalo brought her a loaded pistol and said, “Do it.”
Other women reported incidents where Tyukalo put a gun in their mouth or held it to their head. They described beratings, beatings and instances when Tyukalo would drag them across the floor by their hair, according to a probable cause statement filed with the complaint.
When police raided the home on June 4 and arrested Tyukalo, they found more than 300 cellphones and 50 laptops used by the women to connect with such internet sites as OnlyFans, Chaturbate, Strip Chat and TikTok.
The charges included statements from four young women who said they were recruited when they were 17 and convinced to make sexually explicit content on their 18th birthdays. One of the women was Tyukalo’s girlfriend, who described numerous instances of abuse and beatings when she disagreed with him or balked at making content.
The women said they were promised up to $18,000 a month, but all four said they saw very little money — maybe $1,000 a month. One said she was gifted $32,000 by a subscriber and received a beating when she tried to hide the payment. She turned the gift over to Tyukalo.
“I let them because I was scared,” she told a Bellevue detective. “I thought I was going to get killed, to be honest.”
The women, who worked for periods ranging from a year-and-a-half to several months, described Tyukalo as a volatile personality capable of explosive violence.
Another girl who tried to quit had all of her belongings taken to the Goodwill in Bellevue by Tyukalo who left her, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, at the curb near a supermarket, where a good Samaritan found her and got her help, according to the charges.
The charges outline a sophisticated recruitment network involving several young men and women who would find young women and convince them to participate on the promise of big money. They were often told that they could decide how explicit their content would be — bikini photos or wearing “booty shorts — but once on board they were coerced and threatened into making pornography.
Tyukalo and his companions would control all of the passwords to the various accounts so the women never knew how much money their content was bringing in. During the police raid, detectives found several checks and bank accounts containing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The operation would relocate frequently: The charges outline a mansion, luxury apartments and expensive Airbnbs that variously served as headquarters for the activity. Property records show the 7,480-square-foot Bellevue mansion had an assessed value over $3 million.
The charges do not say exactly how many women were involved, outlining stories by four who came forward, all identified only by their initials — but imply that a number of other women were coerced into creating sexual content.
King County prosecutors have asked that Tyukalo be held on $5 million bail, saying they are concerned about witness intimidation and that he has resources to leave the country.
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Mike Carter; The Seattle Times; (TNS) || © 2026 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of domestic abuse, you can find help and support at DVIS.org, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or by contacting your local women’s shelter at domesticshelters.org. If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the National Sexual Assault Hotline provides confidential 24/7 support. Call 800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online at RAINN.
