A US court has sentenced two Nigerian brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi to 17 years and six months in prison for targeting a teenager Jordan DeMay in a sextortion scam.
The court heard that Samuel, 24, and Samson, 21, sent DeMay a friend request on Instagram, pretended to be a girl his age and flirted with him.
They lured the 17-year-old into sending them explicit images and threatened to broadcast the pictures to his friends if he did not send them money.
After sending as much money as he could, Demay threatened to take his own life if they spread the images.
But the brothers told him, “Good… Do that fast, or I’ll make you do it.”
The brothers were extradited to the US in August 2023 to face prosecution over numerous cases of sexual extortion of young men and teenage boys on social media linked to them.
They pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to exploit teenage boys in Michigan and across the US sexually.
Their defence attorneys said the brothers’ crimes were fuelled by drug abuse and the sextortion scam culture in Nigeria.
At the sentencing, both brothers apologised to DeMay’s family.
“I’m sorry to the family. We made a bad decision to make money and I wish I could change that,” Samson said.
In a statement on Thursday, attorney general Merrick Garland said over 100 victims, including at least 11 minors, fell to the brothers’ scam.
“These sentences should serve as a warning that the perpetrators of online sexual exploitation and extortion cannot escape accountability for their heinous crimes by hiding behind their phones and computers,” Garland said.
“The Justice Department will find them, no matter where they are, and we will bring them to justice in the United States.”
