(AP) — Two brothers from Nigeria were sentenced to 17 1/2 years in federal prison Thursday after pleading guilty to sexually extorting teenage boys and young men across the U.S., including a 17-year-old from Michigan who took his own life.
A federal judge sentenced Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, after hearing emotional testimony from the parents and stepmother of Jordan DeMay, who was 17 when he killed himself at his family's home in Marquette, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
The Ogoshis, both from Lagos, Nigeria, had previously been extradited from Nigeria to stand trial. The brothers each pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys.
They were accused of running an international sextortion ring in which they posed as a woman, a scheme which resulted in DeMay's March 2022 suicide. The siblings were accused of inducing DeMay to send a naked picture of himself and then extorting him. Federal prosecutors said their sextortion schemes targeted more than 100 victims, including DeMay.
“Today’s sentencing of Samuel and Samson Ogoshi sends a thundering message,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement. “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 half-way around the world to do so."
Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors. The offense has a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker, who also sentenced the Ogoshis to five years of supervision following their release, said he would decide what restitution the brothers must make once he receives additional information.
Before sentencing the brothers, Jonker said the case called for long sentences. He said both of the defendants had shown a “callous disregard for life," while noting that the siblings had continued their sextortion scams even after learning that DeMay had killed himself.
“The continuation of the overall scheme even after there was certain knowledge that one individual, the individual in this case, took his own life points to the need for a high sentence,” the judge said during Samson Ogoshi's sentencing hearing.
DeMay’s mother, Jennifer Buta, told the court during Samuel Ogoshi's sentencing that her son's death had left her “shattered to the core, infuriated and trapped in grief.” She said the last text her son sent her was “Mother I love you” — a text she awoke to and thought was endearing until she learned that Jordan had killed himself in his bedroom.
“What I thought was an endearing message from Jordan was his goodbye and his reassurance of his love for me,” Buta said. “I would never have imagined that while I was asleep both of the defendants hid behind their screens and tortured Jordan for hours while he was alone.”
DeMay's stepmother, Jessica DeMay, said during her tearful testimony that she and Jordan's other relatives will “never again experience pure joy” because every happy moment would be tainted by “a small cloud of sadness around it” that comes from Jordan's death.
The teen's father, John DeMay, told the court he is haunted by the image of "my son laying on his bed dead with a gunshot wound to his head."
“Jordan was an amazing young man. He was resilient, he was smart, he was educated, he was an athlete. He was my only son. And you got to talk to him for the last time in his life. That's horrifying to me,” he said.
Samuel Ogoshi’s attorney, Sean Tilton, said his client has cooperated with authorities and has written a letter of apology. He said Samuel Ogoshi is remorseful “and feels a tremendous sense of guilt of the loss of life in this case.”
Samson Ogoshi’s attorney, Julia Kelly, said during his sentencing that her client is “very remorseful” and that he was 18 when he began taking part in extortion and scam attempts. She said such scams are common in Lagos, Nigeria, and he saw those as a quick way to make money.
Kelly wrote in a court filing that “hundreds of people just like him were involved in similar scamming.”
“He was told who could get him a hacked account, how to make a fake profile, how to boost accounts and, because English is not his first language, was given a script of what to say," she wrote.
