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Two Nigerian men were sentenced 210 months each on Thursday in a Michigan federal court over their roles in an online sexual extortion scheme, which authorities said led a teenage boy to die by suicide.
Two years ago, 17-year-old Jordan DeMay was told that the sexually explicit images he believed he sent to a girl would be released if he didn't pay $1,000 to keep them secret. His death in March 2022 prompted the FBI's field office in Michigan to investigate.
According to authorities, Nigerian brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi were buying hacked Instagram accounts to deceive both adult men and underage boys into sending explicit images. Then the Ogoshi brothers threatened to send the images to family and friends if their targets didn't pay them.
The indictment against the brothers said they attempted to extort more than 100 people in the scheme.
Both men will serve 17.5 years in prison after they pleaded guilty to a count each of conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys.
The charge has a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison, but sentencing can go up to 30 years.
The Ogoshi brothers were extradited from Nigeria to the U.S. in August 2023. A third defendant in the case is appealing his own extradition, according to U.S. authorities.
Jordan was a graduating senior at Marquette Senior High School, where he played both football and basketball. He was unable to pay the $1,000 that the Ogoshi brothers demanded of him and messaged that he would kill himself because of them.
Message excerpts included in the indictment against the brothers showed that they respond to him "good."
"Do that fast...Or I’ll make you do it...I swear to God," the message said.
Jordan died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound within six hours of being blackmailed, his parents said. His mother, Jennifer Buta, said it's become her life's mission to share her son's story in the hopes it "will save another child’s life."
"Financial sextortion is the fastest growing crime amongst our teenagers and change will happen when someone is held accountable for what’s happening to these kids," Buta told NBC News earlier this year, following legislative action on the matter.
Source: NBCNews.com
