Doe v. ClothOff (D.N.J.): a New Jersey minor sues the AI 'undressing' platform over generated CSAM
On 16 October 2025, Jane Doe, a New Jersey minor suing through her parents, filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC) against the operators of ClothOff, an AI 'undressing' service, after ClothOff-generated sexual images of her — created from an ordinary photo of her at 14 — circulated in a Snapchat group when she was 15. The complaint, brought by Yale Law School clinics, alleges the platform was purpose-built to produce hyper-realistic non-consensual intimate imagery and names AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. (British Virgin Islands), Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva (Minsk), and Telegram as nominal defendant. As of mid-July 2026 the docket shows a continuing effort to serve the foreign defendants by email or publication.
- AI system
- ClothOff
- AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. d/b/a ClothOff (BVI); operators identified in reporting as based in Minsk, Belarus
- Occurred
- 20 Oct 2023 to 16 Oct 2025
- Reported
- 16 October 2025
- Event location
- United States
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Psychological DistressReputational Harm
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Education · Justice
- Evidence
- AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts
- 6 claims: 4 documented, 1 corroborated, 1 disputed. 5 open questions
- People reported harmed
- At least 1 person
AI system as recorded: ClothOff (AI undressing service)
What Happened
According to the complaint (¶¶33-40), on 20 October 2023 Doe, then 15, learned that ClothOff-generated child sexual abuse material of her and 'several other girls in her class' was circulating in a Snapchat group; the source was an ordinary photo of her at age 14 from Instagram, uploaded by a minor classmate. TechCrunch reports from the complaint that local authorities declined prosecution. The complaint (filed 16 October 2025 in the D.N.J. before Judge Esther Salas and Magistrate Judge James B. Clark) alleges ClothOff is a purpose-built 'undress' service producing hyper-realistic output 'indistinguishable from real photographs' without a watermark in three clicks, with at least 27 million visitors and about 200,000 images per day, at least ten affiliated services, Telegram bots and an API (¶¶1-6, 54-55, 220-255, 695-697). It names AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. d/b/a ClothOff (Tortola, BVI), Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva (of Minsk, described as developing, maintaining and profiting from the service), and Telegram Group Inc./Telegram Messenger Inc. as nominal defendants. The Guardian's Black Box investigation (29 February 2024) had named Babichau and Babicheva, a fake AI 'CEO', the Texture Oasis payment front and GGSel/GG Technology links, tying ClothOff to the Almendralejo (Spain) and Westfield NJ school incidents; Bellingcat's independent investigation (23 February 2024) mapped the same network and its payment laundering. The suit seeks pseudonymity, deletion and destruction of the CSAM including Doe's, a bar on training AI on her images, permanent injunctions against operating or marketing any CSAM/NCII service, and injunctions binding registries, hosts, payment processors and platforms including Telegram. The 2026 docket shows service difficulties: a Rule 4(m) call for dismissal on 24 June 2026 (service not effected; pseudonym motion administratively terminated), vacated by Judge Salas on 29 June after the plaintiff showed ongoing foreign-service efforts, an order allowing service by email on 8 July, and a motion for service by publication or by email filed 9 July, set for decision on 3 August 2026; the RECAP mirror ends 15 July 2026 with no default judgment, dismissal or service resolution visible. X, Discord, Google and YouTube removals are confirmed by Yale (summer 2025 letters); the historical claim that Telegram removed the ClothOff bot is contradicted by TechCrunch (12 January 2026), which found the service still available through a Telegram bot.
Reported harm
ClothOff-generated CSAM of a 15-year-old circulated in her school's Snapchat group from an ordinary childhood photo — persistent image-based abuse of a minor that local authorities declined to prosecute, leaving the federal suit as the remedy path.
How Harm Occurred
A purpose-built 'undress' service converted an ordinary childhood photo into sexual imagery of a minor, which then circulated in her school community; the platform's foreign incorporation and Telegram distribution frustrate removal and enforcement.
Outcome
OngoingD.N.J. 2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC, filed 16 October 2025. 2026 docket: Rule 4(m) dismissal call (24 Jun) vacated (29 Jun) after the plaintiff showed ongoing foreign-service efforts; order allowing service by email (8 Jul); motion for service by publication or email (9 Jul) set for decision 3 August 2026. No default judgment, dismissal or service resolution visible at the RECAP mirror's end (15 July 2026).
What remains unknown
- The service-by-publication/email motion's outcome after 3 August 2026 is not visible in the RECAP mirror (ends 15 July 2026); whether default judgment or dismissal followed is unknown.
- Whether Doe's school is the Westfield High School of the earlier New Jersey incident is unverified: the complaint names only 'a high school in Union County', and the historical record's 'separate victim from Francesca Mani' is not established by any inspected document. The school is deliberately not inferred or named.
- The current availability of the generated images is unknown.
- The platforms' and registries' responses to the requested injunctions are not yet reported.
- The complaint's platform figures (visitors, image rate) are the plaintiff's allegations and are not independently audited.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: supported. The complaint alleges the images of Doe were generated by ClothOff from her photo; the platform's purpose-built undress function is documented by the complaint and the Guardian/Bellingcat investigations. The allegations remain allegations against the unserved defendants; the platform's existence, function and operator identity are independently investigated.
6 claims: 4 documented, 1 corroborated, 1 disputed. What the statuses mean
Documented Jane Doe, a minor suing through her parents, filed the complaint on 16 October 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC, Judge Esther Salas, Magistrate Judge James B. Clark) against AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. d/b/a ClothOff (BVI), Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva (of Minsk), and Telegram entities as nominal defendants.
Causal attribution. Established directly by the filing and the docket.
- storage.courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Complaint caption and preliminary statement; ¶¶260-274, 338-340 (Telegram as nominal defendant).
- courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Docket D.E. 1 (filed 2025-10-16; assigned judges).
Documented On 20 October 2023 Doe, then 15, learned that ClothOff-generated CSAM of her and 'several other girls in her class' was circulating in a Snapchat group; the source was an ordinary photo of her at age 14 from Instagram, uploaded by a minor classmate; local authorities declined to prosecute.
Causal attribution. Established as the complaint's contents; they remain the plaintiff's allegations. The prosecution decline is TechCrunch's reading of the complaint, attributed.
- storage.courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Complaint ¶¶33-40 (the discovery date, the Snapchat-group circulation, the age-14 source photo, the classmate uploader).
- techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) context · English
TechCrunch's complaint-based account, including that local authorities declined prosecution.
Documented The complaint describes ClothOff as a purpose-built 'undress' service producing hyper-realistic output 'indistinguishable from real photographs' without a watermark in three clicks, with at least 27 million visitors and about 200,000 images per day, at least ten affiliated services, Telegram bots and an API.
Causal attribution. Established as the complaint's contents. These are the plaintiff's allegations, not independently audited figures; the historical record's '3 million users' and '15+ affiliated services' were corrected to the complaint's figures.
- storage.courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Complaint ¶¶1-6, 54-55 (visitors, image rate, watermark, three clicks), ¶¶220-255 (affiliated services), ¶¶695-697 (bots, API).
Corroborated Reporting before the suit identified the operators: the Guardian's Black Box investigation named Babichau and Babicheva (Minsk), a fake AI 'CEO', the Texture Oasis payment front and GGSel/GG Technology links, and tied ClothOff to the Almendralejo (Spain) and Westfield NJ school incidents; Bellingcat's independent investigation mapped the same network and its payment laundering six days earlier.
Causal attribution. Two independent investigations six days apart; they overlap on GG Technology/Bondarenko but were conducted separately. The complaint itself relies on the Guardian's reporting (per Yale).
- theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Guardian passages naming the operators, the fake CEO, Texture Oasis and GGSel/GG Technology; the Almendralejo and Westfield links; '>4m monthly visits'.
- bellingcat.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Bellingcat's network map and payment-laundering account (G2A/Skinsback/Steam/PayPal/Stripe/Patreon), 23 Feb 2024.
Documented The 2026 docket shows continuing service efforts: a Rule 4(m) call for dismissal on 24 June 2026 (service not effected; the pseudonym motion administratively terminated), vacated by Judge Salas on 29 June after the plaintiff showed ongoing foreign-service efforts; an order allowing service by email on 8 July; and a motion for service by publication or email on 9 July, set for decision on 3 August 2026.
Causal attribution. Established by the docket through the RECAP mirror's end (15 July 2026); nothing later is visible in this review.
- courtlistener.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Docket entries D.E. 12-20 (24 Jun notice; 29 Jun vacatur; 8 Jul order; 9 Jul motion and exhibits; 3 Aug setting).
Disputed X, Discord, Google and YouTube removed ClothOff following the clinics' summer 2025 letters (Yale); the historical claim that Telegram removed the ClothOff bot in October 2025 is contradicted by TechCrunch, which found the service still available through a Telegram bot on 12 January 2026.
Causal attribution. The platform removals are a party account (Yale); the Telegram-bot status is contradicted by later reporting and recorded as disputed rather than resolved either way.
- law.yale.edu(opens in new tab) supports · English
Yale's account of the removal letters and platform responses (X, Discord, Google, YouTube).
- techcrunch.com(opens in new tab) contradicts · English
TechCrunch: the service was 'still available... through a Telegram bot' (12 Jan 2026).
Sources
7 sources inspected, from 6 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- Federal complaint, D.N.J. 2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC (45 pages, read via pdftotext)(opens in new tab)
s1 · storage.courtlistener.com · Court filing · English · Inspected · 16 October 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- CourtListener docket (through D.E. 20; mirror ends 15 Jul 2026)(opens in new tab)
s2 · courtlistener.com · Court docket · English · Inspected · 15 July 2026 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
- Yale Law School announcement (party source; clinics bringing the suit)(opens in new tab)
s3 · law.yale.edu · Party announcement · English · Inspected · 16 October 2025
- The Guardian, Black Box (29 Feb 2024) — operator names, payment front, school-incident links(opens in new tab)
s4 · theguardian.com · News investigation · English · Inspected · 29 February 2024
- Bellingcat (23 Feb 2024) — independent network and payment-laundering investigation(opens in new tab)
s5 · bellingcat.com · News investigation · English · Inspected · 23 February 2024
- TechCrunch (12 Jan 2026) — co-lead counsel interview; prosecution decline; Telegram bot still available(opens in new tab)
s6 · techcrunch.com · News report · English · Inspected · 12 January 2026
- Ars Technica (17 Oct 2025) — relays the WSJ report; Telegram ToS statement; the separate suit against the boy(opens in new tab)
s7 · arstechnica.com · News relaying wsj · English · Inspected · 17 October 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
- Wall Street Journal (16 Oct 2025) — HTTP 401 paywall; not read(opens in new tab)
s8 · wsj.com · News report · Language unknown · Not inspected · 16 October 2025 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
- NJ.com (23 Jan 2026) — HTTP 403; not read(opens in new tab)
s9 · nj.com · News report · Language unknown · Not inspected · 23 January 2026
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
Complaint PDF (45 pages) fetched and read via pdftotext on 2026-09-15. The filing establishes its own contents; its allegations remain allegations. Applies to s1.
Docket reviewed on 2026-09-15 through D.E. 20 (mirror ends 15 July 2026). Applies to s2.
Read on 2026-09-15. Party source (the clinics bringing the suit); used for the clinics' role and the X/Discord/Google/YouTube removal letters. Applies to s3.
Read in full on 2026-09-15 (29 Feb 2024, Black Box). Applies to s4.
Read in full on 2026-09-15 (23 Feb 2024). Applies to s5.
Read in full on 2026-09-15 (12 Jan 2026); own interview with co-lead counsel. Applies to s6.
Read on 2026-09-15 (17 Oct 2025). Relays the WSJ report; adds Telegram's ToS statement and the separate suit against the boy. Applies to s7.
HTTP 401 paywall on 2026-09-15; not read; language not established. Applies to s8.
HTTP 403 on 2026-09-15; not read; language not established. Applies to s9.
Event countries: United States. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: United States.
Event: a high school in Union County, New Jersey (complaint; the school is not named and is not inferred). Affected person: the New Jersey minor. Court: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The defendants' BVI/Belarus connections are recorded without becoming event or court countries.
Reviewed for publication 2026-09-15: Restored under the 2026-09-15 charter as a harmful-artifact case (depicted_or_impersonated) with the federal complaint as the primary record. The plaintiff is a minor protected by court-ordered pseudonymity; no school, classmate or image description beyond the minimum case facts is reproduced. The complaint's contents are recorded as allegations; operator identity rests on two independent investigations.
Interaction Concerns
People described
Jane Doe, a New Jersey minor (pseudonymous by court order, suing through her parents Jill and Jack Doe); the complaint references 'several other girls in her class' depicted, unnamed and unquantified
People reported harmed in this case
At least 1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
Additional affected people are described without a reliable count.
One counted depicted person: Jane Doe (complaint). The complaint's 'several other girls in her class' are depicted but unnamed and unquantified, so the total is counted-plus-unquantified (partial). Platform visitor and image-rate figures (27 million visitors, ~200,000 images/day) are not people and are never counted.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Doe v. ClothOff (D.N.J.): a New Jersey minor sues the AI 'undressing' platform over generated CSAM. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-doe-v-clothoff-nj
BibTeX
@misc{2025_doe_v_clothoff_nj,
title = {Doe v. ClothOff (D.N.J.): a New Jersey minor sues the AI 'undressing' platform over generated CSAM},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-doe-v-clothoff-nj}
} Related cases
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