(Headline USA) Two brothers from Nigeria pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually extorting teenage boys and young men in Michigan and across the country, including one who took his own life, a federal prosecutor said.
Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20, of Lagos, Nigeria, each pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys, U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement.
The offense has a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, Totten said, and a maximum penalty of 30 years. A date for sentencing hasn’t been set.
Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.
The Ogoshis were accused of running an international sextortion ring in which they posed as a woman—and which resulted in the suicide of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay of Marquette, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, on March 25, 2022. The two men were accused of inducing DeMay to send a naked picture of himself and then extorting him.
DeMay sent the compromising photo on the first night he began communicating with the “catfish” account he believed to be a woman named @dani.robertts, the .
Shortly thereafter, Samuel Ogoshi threatened to make the photo go “viral” if DeMay did not send him $1,000. After sending $300, the extortionists continued to demand more money, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
According to court records Demay then sent a message saying “I’m kms rn [I’m kill myself right now] … Bc of you [Because of you].”
The blackmailers then responded, “Good. .. Do that fast. Or I’ll make you do it. I swear to God.”
The Ogoshis, who had previously been extradited from Nigeria to stand trial, were remanded to the custody of federal marshals after pleading guilty.
“These convictions will send a message to criminals in Nigeria and every corner of the globe … we can find you and we can bring you to justice,” Totten said in a statement.
“I hope these guilty pleas also bring a small measure of relief to the family of Jordan DeMay, who died as a result of this crime,” he said.
“I always had this confident feeling that they would find who did this to Jordan,” DeMay’s mother, Jennifer Buta, told WDIV-TV.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
