This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Five Americans have pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection with a Nigerian sextortion scheme that led to a Michigan teenager's death by suicide.
Georgia residents Kendall Ormond London, 32; Brian Keith Coldmon, Jr., 30; Jarell Daivon Williams, 31; and Johnathan Demetrius Green, 32, as well as Dinsimore Guyton Robinson, 29, of Alabama, have pleaded guilty to using online payment systems to collect sextortion proceeds and send them to a Nigerian individual they referred to as "The Plug," the Justice Department said in a press release.
Jordan DeMay, of Michigan, was 17 years old when Nigerian brothers Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and his brother, Samson Ogoshi, 20, posed as a woman on Instagram using a hacked account and struck up a conversation with the teenager.
The brothers ultimately used the account to blackmail the teenager into sending money and threaten him into sending more until he took his own life in March 2022.
MICHIGAN FOOTBALL PLAYER'S NIGERIAN SCAMMERS PAY PRICE FOR TEENS SEXTORTION SUICIDE
John DeMay is sounding the alarm about a crime called "sextortion" after his 17-year-old son, Jordan DeMay, died by suicide after becoming the victim of a sextortion scheme last year. (handout)
Federal officials extradited the Ogoshi brothers to the United States in 2024, and a judge ordered them to serve more than 17 years in prison and five years of supervised release for their roles in the sextortion scheme that led to DeMay's death and targeted more than 100 other victims, as well.
"It's another layer of justice."
— John DeMay"It's rewarding in a sense that our country and the FBI are taking this seriously and closing the gaps on each leg of this crime," Jordan's father, John DeMay, told Fox News Digital on Thursday in response to the five Americans who pled guilty to money laundering.
AFTER MICHIGAN TEEN'S SUICIDE, NIGERIAN BROTHERS PLEAD GUILTY TO PLANNING DEADLY SEXTORTION SCHEME
Nigerian brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi pleaded guilty for conspiring to extort minors on Wednesday. (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission)
Sextortion is a social media crime trend in which bad actors entice or solicit a minor to engage in sexual acts or send blackmail money, according to the FBI, which received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims between October 2021 and March 2023.
The Nigerian sextortionists in Jordan's case targeted young men and boys while posing as romantic interests and coerced them into sending nude images. Once they sent those images, the sextortionists threatened the victims, saying they would expose those images if the victims did not send them money online.
MICHIGAN FAMILY SOUNDS ALARM ON SON'S 'SEXTORTION' SUICIDE AFTER ARRESTS OF 3 NIGERIAN MEN
For example, in Jordan's case, on the same night the Ogoshis started communicating with him through Instagram, the teenager sent an explicit photo of himself to the account that he thought belonged to a woman.
The father of young Pennsylvania man who died by suicide after becoming the victim of a sextortion attempt helped lead the FBI to Nigerian suspects charged in the case. (FBI)
Samuel Ogoshi threatened to expose it and make it go "viral" online if Jordan did not immediately send money, prosecutors said. Jordan complied and sent the suspect money, but the crime only escalated from there as Samuel Ogoshi demanded more and more money from the 17-year-old.
The exchange went on for hours on a single night until Jordan told Samuel Ogoshi that he was going to kill himself.
NIGERIAN MEN TO FACE US JUSTICE IN SEXTORTION SCHEME THAT LED TO TEEN'S SUICIDE
"Good," he wrote. "Do that fast. Or I'll make you do it. I swear to God."
Jordan Demay began chatting with someone he thought was a woman on Instagram under the username "dani.robertts." (handout)
The Ogoshi brothers directed victims like Jordan to send the money to accounts on Apple Pay, Cash App and Zelle that belonged to the Georgia and Alabama money launderers, who would then keep about 20% of the funds, convert the remainder to bitcoin and send the bitcoin to "The Plug" in Nigeria. "The Plug" also kept a portion of the funds for himself and sent the rest to the sextortionists — in this case, the Ogoshi brothers.
DeMay noted that it is difficult to transfer American dollars directly to Nigerian currency, which is why scammers opt for bitcoin; bitcoin is also harder for officials to trace.
Acting U.S. Attorney Birge noted that the Americans who "profited from this awful, heartbreaking scheme" will now "face the consequences" of their actions.
John DeMay also said he would tell Jordan "every single day" if he had "a chance" that threats from the sextortionist were not the end of his life. (handout)
"The conspiracy offense is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The court will decide the sentences upon consultation with federal sentencing guidelines and the individual circumstances," Birge said.
"It’s still happening every day."
— John DeMayDeMay has since turned his heartbreak into advocacy, traveling around the country and the world to not only educate Americans on what sextortion is and how to prevent children from falling victim to these scams, but also to promote federal legislation that aims to protect minors online.
"Unfortunately, there are still a lot of sextortion cases across the country," he said.
The suspect in Jordan's death, 20-year-old Samson Ogoshi, is one of three suspects from Lagos arrested earlier this month for allegedly hacking Instagram accounts and sexually extorting, or "sextorting," more than 100 young men online. (handout)
The average age of sextortion victims is between 14 and 17 years old, the FBI said in a press release earlier this year, but the agency noted that any child can become a victim. Offenders of financially motivated sextortion typically originate from African and Southeast Asian countries, according to the FBI. The FBI also saw a 20% increase in sextortion incidents involving minors between October 2022 and March 2023.
Sextortion can lead to suicide and self-harm. Between October 2021 and March 2023, the majority of online financial extortion victims were boys. These reports involved at least 20 suicides, the FBI said.
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The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a free service called "Take it Down," which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
DeMay is a proponent of the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which received House and Senate support last year but ultimately did not make it to the House floor for voting during a lame-duck session. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are expected to re-introduce the bill this year.