A United States court sentenced two Nigerian siblings to 17 years and six months in jail for sextortion.
In addition to the 17 years and six months in prison, the two prisoners, Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and his brother, Samson Ogoshi, 21, from Lagos, Nigeria, would be released under supervision for five years.
The two brothers were extradited to the United States to face trial on charges of conspiring to sexually exploit many teenagers.
Their plot resulted in the death of a 17-year-old high school student, according to the US Justice Department, which announced the judgement on its Facebook page on Thursday.
Jordan DeMay, the victim, was a male school student from Michigan.
Aside from DeMay, the Ogochi brothers were accused of exploiting over 100 people, including 11 kids.
“These defendants sexually exploited and extorted more than 100 victims, including at least 11 minors, resulting in the tragic death of a 17-year-old high school student,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the same Facebook post.
Responding to the ruling, US Attorney Mark Totten for the Western District of Michigan stated, “To criminals who commit these schemes, you are not immune from justice.” We will track you down and hold you accountable, even if it means travelling halfway around the world.”
According to the information given in the Facebook post, the Ogoshi brothers exploited hijacked social media accounts to construct phoney profiles.
They also did online research on their victims to find out where they lived, what school they attended, where they worked, and who their family and friends were.
Following their research, they asked their minor victims to generate sexually explicit photographs of themselves, and once they had the images, they made a collage of pictures that contained the sexually explicit image as well as images of the victim and their school, family, and friends.
The Ogoshi brothers threatened to reveal the collages to the victim’s family, friends, and classmates unless he agreed to pay money using online cash apps.
The Ogoshi brothers and Ezekiel Robert, a Nigerian national, were accused in November 2022 in connection with the sextortion scheme that resulted in DeMay’s death.
They were extradited to the United States in August 2023 and pleaded guilty in April.
The third Nigerian’s extradition is pending following an appeal in his home country.
