Jordan DeMay (Photo courtesy of DeMay Family)
(WTAQ-WLUK) — More people are facing federal charges in a sextortion scheme that caused the death of a U.P. teen.
Earlier this year, two Nigerian brothers, Samuel and Samson Ogoshi, were convicted for sexually extorting young men and teenage boys across the U.S., including 17-year-old Jordan DeMay of Marquette, Michigan.
Authorities say just hours before DeMay’s suicide on March 25, 2022, DeMay was being extorted through Instagram over pictures that he had taken of himself and was pressured by one of the men to pay money in exchange for the pictures not being sent to his family and Instagram followers. Officials say DeMay sent $300, but the pictures were sent anyway.
In Friday’s federal indictment, five U.S. citizens are being charged with conspiring to commit money laundering that facilitated the sextortion scheme.
Investigators say the five charged received more than $178,000 from sextortion victims, which included money from DeMay:
- Johnathan Demetrius Green, 32, Stone Mountain, Georgia
- Jarell Daivon Williams, 31, McDonough, Georgia
- Dinsimore Guyton Robinson, 30, Huntsville, Alabama
- Kendall Ormond London, Jr., 32, Lithonia, Georgia
- Brian Keith Coldmon, Jr., 30, Stone Mountain, Georgia
“Every day Americans fall victim to financial scams, including sextortion, romance scams, and consumer fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten, in a statement. “Senior citizens, children, and teenagers are especially vulnerable. The result of these crimes can be devastating, as the death of Jordan DeMay makes painfully clear. Today’s charges send a loud and clear message that we will chase down everyone who enables these crimes, including the U.S.-based money launderers.”
As Samuel and Samson Ogoshi admitted in their plea agreements, the Nigerian-based sextortionists devised a fraudulent scheme where they pretended to be a young woman in social media accounts and encouraged teenage boys and young men to engage in sexually explicit conduct and produce images of that conduct. Once the victims produced and sent those images, the sextortionists used those images to blackmail their victims for money, threatening to send the images to others, including families, friends, and classmates of the victims. The sextortionists instructed their victims to send money to designated financial accounts through various cash applications.
The indictment in Friday’s related case alleges that the defendants – the U.S.-based money launderers – controlled these designated financial accounts. They would keep a portion of the victims’ funds – typically 20% – and then convert the rest into bitcoin. The defendants would then send the bitcoin to an unindicted Nigerian co-conspirator, whom they referred to as “The Plug.” The Plug would keep a portion of the bitcoin funds, and send the remainder to Samuel Ogoshi, Samson Ogoshi, Ezekiel Robert, and other sextortionists.
Comments