USA TODAY – Two brothers from Nigeria were sentenced Thursday to 17 1/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sexually extorting more than 100 young men and teenage boys across the United States, including a Michigan high school student who died by suicide, prosecutors said.
Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, each pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to exploit teenage boys sexually and were later extradited from Nigeria to the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.
They were accused of running an international sextortion ring in which they posed as young women and targeted over 100 victims, including at least 11 minors.
Prosecutors said the Ogoshis conducted their sextortion scheme while living in Nigeria, where they bought hacked social media accounts and used them to lure victims with fake profiles.
The scheme resulted in the death of 17-year-old high school student, Jordan DeMay, in March 2022.
DeMay died from a self-inflicted gunshot at his home in Marquette, Michigan, after he was blackmailed by Samuel Ogoshi, according to court records.
“To criminals who commit these schemes: you are not immune from justice. We will track you down and hold you accountable, even if we have to go halfway around the world to do so,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the Ogoshis used their fake social media profiles to message victims.
They researched online about the victims to learn where they lived, worked, attended school, and to find out the identities of victims’ families and friends.
The Ogoshis then solicited sexually explicit images from their minor victims and created a collage of photographs that included the compromising image with other photos of the victim and their school, family, and friends.
The two brothers “threatened to disclose the collages to the family, friends, and classmates of the victim unless the victim agreed to pay money using online cash applications” …
