₦airaland Forum

Two brothers from Nigeria who targeted a 17-year-old in a sextortion scam have been sentenced to 17 years and six months in jail in the US.

The Ogoshi brothers, from Lagos, lured Jordan DeMay into sending them explicit images by pretending to be a girl his age - then blackmailed him.

He killed himself less than six hours after they started talking on Instagram.

It is the first successful prosecution of Nigerians for sextortion in the US, where it is a rapidly growing cyber-crime, often linked to Nigeria.

Jordan's mother, Jenn Buta, held pictures of her son in court and wept as she read a victim impact statement. "I am shattered to my core," she said.

She welcomed the ending of the trial, but said there was no good outcome from the tragic case.

Jordan DeMay was a popular schoolboy from Michigan.

Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, sent him a friend request on Instagram pretending to be a pretty girl his age and then flirted with him.

Once they received explicit images from the teenager, they blackmailed him for hundreds of dollars, threatening to share the pictures online with his friends if he did not comply.

Jordan sent as much money as he could and warned the scammers that he would kill himself if they spread the images.

The criminals replied: “Good… Do that fast - or I'll make you do it.”

John DeMay told Marquette federal court in Michigan he still has nightmares after finding his son dead in his bedroom. He said his family was forced to move home to escape the memory.

The brothers pleaded guilty in April, external to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys in Michigan and across the US.

Thirty-eight other US victims were also identified as being targeted by the men. 13 of them were minors.

The brothers sat in court in orange jumpsuits with handcuffs.

Their defence attorneys said the brothers' crimes were fuelled by drug abuse and the sextortion scam culture in Nigeria.

The judge said the crimes showed a "callous disregard for life", especially given they continued targeting other victims after learning that Jordan has died.

Both brothers apologised to Jordan's family.

"I'm sorry to the family. We made a bad decision to make money and I wish I could change that," Samson Ogoshi said.

In the first case of its kind, US police tracked the criminals to Lagos last summer and successfully extradited them for trial.

Another Nigerian man linked to Jordan’s death and other cases is fighting extradition.

Speaking to the BBC in May from Jordan's family home in the city of Marquette, Jordan's mother praised the police for their work tracking the sextortionists down.

But she said she had mixed feelings about the Ogoshis being behind bars.

"It's a relief that someone is being held accountable, but there's no good that's coming out of this situation for my family or for the individuals responsible's family," she said.

"I miss my son more than I can describe to you, but the mother of those men is probably missing her two sons as well now. She too is really just an innocent bystander of sextortion crime," said Jenn Buta.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr7rxpdyz9yo

Researchers and law enforcement agencies point to Nigeria as a hotspot for this type of crime.

In April, two Nigerian men were arrested after a schoolboy from Australia killed himself. Two other men are on trial in Lagos after the suicides of a 15-year-old boy in the US and a 14-year-old in Canada.

Nigerian authorities are also working with police in Scotland to investigate the case of 16-year-old Murray Dowey, who killed himself in December.

In January, US cyber-company Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) highlighted a web of Nigerian TikTok, YouTube and Scribd accounts sharing tips and scripts for sextortion. Many of the discussions and videos are in Nigerian Pidgin dialect.

Nigeria cyber-security professor Adedeji Oyenuga from Lagos State University says he hopes the news of Nigerians being sentenced will filter through to criminals and put them off.

"The Ogoshis case has already sent a bad signal. I am hearing from street level that it is having an effect and it might not stop criminals turning to these crimes, but it will likely reduce the numbers," he said.

There had been an increase in the number of local victims too and Professor Oyenuga says Nigerian police have had some success in tackling the criminals.

It is not the first time that some of Nigeria’s young, tech-savvy population has embraced a new wave of cyber-crime.

The term "Yahoo Boys" is used to describe a portion of the population that use cyber-crime to earn a living. It comes from the early 2000s wave of Nigerian Prince scam emails which spread through the Yahoo email service.

Dr Tombari Sibe, from cyber-security firm Digital Footprints Nigeria, says cyber-fraud such as sextortion has become normalised among young people in the country, but he hopes that news of the Ogoshis' sentencing spreads fast.

"They see cybercrime as a bloodless crime, with potentially lucrative financial rewards. This case needs to be given sufficient coverage to show these young people that sextortion can lead to loss of life and long prison sentences," he said.


Photos:

Top: Two suspects linked to Australian boy's suicide
Bottom three: Murray Dowey, the 16 year old UK boy who committed suicide. And his parents.

...eyaahhh!!!..

this family and their relatives go hate Nigerians dieeeee

they should get the death penalty instead...a life for a life!

If you know what's good for you , condemn these criminals.

Do not make excuses for their crimes by blaming it on the state of the economy and country at large.


If you do this for once in your lives, we will know that you are truly ready to reform as a people.

These young men will spend at least 10-20ys behind bars.

Their crimes go beyond extortion but will also involve much serious crimes such as soliciting from a minor, requesting nudes from a minor.

The court will be blind to any plea that their crimes was not of a sexual nature.

These guys are going to have CP, child solicitation via an electronic medium and extortion and blackmail as part of their convicted rap sheet.

They will be lucky if the judge only gives them 10-20ys sentence. Normally crimes like this are 25 to life and being that they are being tried under a federal judge and so will be sent to federal prison where there is no parole system in place.

They are done for and will only be out until they reach their late 40s or early 50s and that's all depending if the judge does not slam them with a life sentence.

These are the future of Nigeria ... It's very scary to imagine.

Children of the corn 🌽🌽🌽🌽

Let them face the law.

Franzinni:
These are the future of Nigeria ... It's very scary to imagine.

Children of the corn 🌽🌽🌽🌽

You don start.

ChiefJusticeFuc:
You don start.

no vex.

Old news...

OgaTheTop2:
Old news...

This is the latest update.

The old news you are talking about is when they were aerated and extradited to the US.

This is the latest news which is that they have been duly convicted in court on all charges.

The only thing remaining is a sentencing hearing .

Similar stories with many who traveled

U are in Nigeria - resorted to fraud n crime because the govt really didn't produce jobs - UNDERSTOOD

U japad and still resorted to fraud n crime even though the reason for ur japa is to get greener bamba in a country with opportunities.

Bottom line - Fraud dey ur system. Period and straight.

Did these guys did this blackmail while in Nigeria? Dat part no clear

ChiefJusticeFuc:
If you know what's good for you , condemn these criminals.

Do not make excuses for their crimes by blaming it on the state of the economy and country at large.


If you do this for once in your lives, we will know that you are truly ready to reform as a people.

These young men will spend at least 10-20ys behind bars.

Their crimes go beyond extortion but will also involve much serious crimes such as soliciting from a minor, requesting nudes from a minor.

The court will be blind to any plea that their crimes was not of a sexual nature.

These guys are going to have CP, child solicitation via an electronic medium and extortion and blackmail as part of their convicted rap sheet.

They will be lucky if the judge only gives them 10-20ys sentence. Normally crimes like this are 25 to life and being that they are being tried under a federal judge and so will be sent to federal prison where there is no parole system in place.

They are done for and will only be out until they reach their late 40s or early 50s and that's all depending if the judge does not slam them with a life sentence.

Atleast dem enter America without visa.

Samson Ogoshi and Samuel Ogoshi

My Lord I sustain my case

ChiefJusticeFuc:
If you know what's good for you , condemn these criminals.

Do not make excuses for their crimes by blaming it on the state of the economy and country at large.


If you do this for once in your lives, we will know that you are truly ready to reform as a people.

These young men will spend at least 10-20ys behind bars.

Their crimes go beyond extortion but will also involve much serious crimes such as soliciting from a minor, requesting nudes from a minor.

The court will be blind to any plea that their crimes was not of a sexual nature.

These guys are going to have CP, child solicitation via an electronic medium and extortion and blackmail as part of their convicted rap sheet.

They will be lucky if the judge only gives them 10-20ys sentence. Normally crimes like this are 25 to life and being that they are being tried under a federal judge and so will be sent to federal prison where there is no parole system in place.

They are done for and will only be out until they reach their late 40s or early 50s and that's all depending if the judge does not slam them with a life sentence.

Worse still, they might also be targeted in jail by other inmates. A sentence of being repeatedly stabbed, beaten and other stuff might await them and all for what?

They will be defended on here though by their ilk who will blame the government.

aswani:
Worse still, they might also be targeted in jail by other inmates. A sentence of being repeatedly stabbed, beaten and other stuff might await them and all for what?

They will be defended on here though by their ilk who will blame the government.

What's for sure is that they are really going to get the cultural shock of their lives doing time in a US Federal Max. Because they are going in for a long time.

My heart breaks for the Jordan's family.

Shame on these two Nigerians. These are the individuals spoiling our names abroad.

This should be a frontpage news for others with such evil mindset to possibly learn from.

Do the crime, be ready to do the time.

aswani:
Worse still, they might also be targeted in jail by other inmates. A sentence of being repeatedly stabbed, beaten and other stuff might await them and all for what?

They will be defended on here though by their ilk who will blame the government.

The first thing they do in a Federal Pen is to demand for your paper work.

This is the conviction record which every inmate is expected to have in their possession in case they want to file an appeal or challenge the conviction.

And knowing that Federal Pen is where most Chomos end up, it's standard procedure for inmates to demand for a new intakes paper work.

They are going to find it hard to explain to those goons behind bars that they are not your regular sex offenders with that rap sheet.

ChiefJusticeFuc:
The first thing they do in a Federal Pen is to demand for your paper work.

This is the conviction record which every inmate is expected to have in their possession in case they want to file an appeal or challenge the conviction.

And knowing that Federal Pen is where most Chomos end up, it's standard procedure for inmates to demand for a new intakes paper work.

They are going to find it hard to explain to those goons behind bars that they are not your regular sex offenders with that rap sheet.

If they can get a solitary confinement type gig in prison, which I hear is mentally demoralising, they would have done well.

I watched a program where a Kenyan man was going round strangling old women in Texas and stealing their property afterwards. He left a woman for dead who wasn't and to cut a long story short, he was busted.

The guy didn't even last 6 months in the Texas prison, not even the more brutal Federal ones, before a fellow inmate despatched him to hell by beating him to death.

The scary part is the prison authorities closed the case sharpish, no reports about investigation into his death or what happened to the person that killed him who was probably serving life without parole too anyway.

Not all that glitters is gold.

PARENTS. train up your child properly. The child you failed to train will eventually bring shame and disrepute to your name.

Sad.
The boy must have cried and cried

Sadly this story won't be going away.

Foolish criminals, money has blocked their heads. They go know how far. After Yahoo no work, they are now going into bandity and kidnapping. Sheybi you people always justify Yahoo, that there is no job, that it is reparation, that you did not kill anyone and all excuses?You see that lad that killed himself? That is what Yahoo boys cause the people they steal from. Some of those people are saving for retirement, you just damage their lives. America no de use teenage or underage crime pay, you will pay for it and they will haunt you. Idiots