A federal judge in Michigan, United States, has sentenced two brothers from Nigeria to 17 and a half years in prison for roles in a social media sextortion scheme that claimed the life of a high school student identified as Jordan DeMay.
The activities of the two brothers also affected over 100 victims across the United States.
The brothers, Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, who each pleaded guilty in April to one count of conspiracy to exploit minors, will be on supervised release for five years after completing their prison terms, prosecutors said in a news release on Thursday.
The Ogoshis are from Lagos, Nigeria and were extradited to the United States from Nigeria in August 2023 after they were indicted in November 2022.
The extradition marked a new chapter in cooperation with Nigerian authorities in extraditing perpetrators of sextortion and similar scam.
Last month, the Justice Department announced the extradition of two other Nigerian nationals on similar charges in Pennsylvania.
A third defendant in the case, Ezekiel Robert, is pending extradition from Nigeria, prosecutors said.
According to the NYtimes, the brothers were sentenced in a case involving a popular relatively new scam the authorities call financial sextortion, in which scammers pose as young women on social media and send flirty messages to young men and teenage boys before soliciting nude photographs that they then hold as ransom.
The scammers threatened to send the photos to family, friends and classmates if the victim did not pay the demanded money.
The Ogoshis were accused of helping to extort money from more than 100 victims, including at least 11 minors, using hacked profiles on Instagram and other social media platforms to pose as young women, prosecutors said.
Samuel Ogoshi, posing as a young woman under the account name “dani.robertts” on Instagram, solicited nude photos from Mr. DeMay, according to the indictment.
“I have screenshot all ur followers and tags can send this nudes to everyone and also send your nudes to your Family and friends Until it goes viral,” read a message sent from the account to Mr. DeMay on March 25, 2022, according to the indictment. “All you’ve to do is to cooperate with me and I won’t expose you.”
After the teen paid only $300, he continued to receive threats from the “dani.robertts” Instagram account. At one point Mr. DeMay was encouraged to commit suicide if he couldn’t pay the full amount, according to court records.
Mr. DeMay was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound later on March 25, 2022, prosecutors said.
Mark Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, said on Thursday that the sentencing sent a “thundering message” to scammers, who usually run the schemes from overseas.
“We will track you down and hold you accountable, even if we have to go halfway around the world to do so,” Mr. Totten said in a news release. “The day when you could commit these crimes, rake in easy cash, destroy lives, and escape justice is gone.”
Lawyers for the brothers could not be immediately reached Thursday. In presentencing memorandums asking for the lightest possible sentence, lawyers for both men said their clients were remorseful and pointed to their otherwise clean criminal records.
Officials have ramped up their efforts to crack down on sextortion schemes, which have claimed thousands of victims in recent years. The F.B.I. fielded 13,000 reports of sextortion from October 2021 to March 2023.
An overwhelming share of victims were minors. From January 2021 through July 2023, at least 20 teenagers killed themselves after being caught in the scam, according to the F.B.I.
The devastating consequences have prompted officials and advocates to undertake awareness campaigns showing teens how to protect themselves and emphasizing that recourse is available if they are victimized.
Last month, federal prosecutors announced the indictment of five people based in the United States who they said had helped launder money extorted by the Ogoshi brothers.
Mr. DeMay’s mother, Jennifer Buta, spoke about her son’s death in court Thursday. She said that she had received a final text from her son saying “Mother I love you,” according to The Associated Press.
“I would never have imagined that while I was asleep both of the defendants hid behind their screens and tortured Jordan for hours while he was alone,” Ms. Buta said, according to The A.P.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Ms. Buta described her son as kind and compassionate and said that the sentences showed that there was hope for justice for the families of victims in similar cases.
Ms. Buta said she had told the court that she especially lamented the loss of a big brother for her young children, who were toddlers when he died.
“I will make sure they know how amazing Jordan was,” she said.
