This article covers the topic of suicide. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Five U.S. citizens have confessed to being involved in money laundering related to a Nigerian sextortion operation that ultimately resulted in the suicide of a teenager from Michigan.

According to a press release from the Justice Department, Georgia residents Kendall Ormond London, 32; Brian Keith Coldmon, Jr., 30; Jarell Daivon Williams, 31; and Johnathan Demetrius Green, 32, along with Dinsimore Guyton Robinson, 29, from Alabama, admitted to utilizing online payment platforms to facilitate the transfer of sextortion funds to a Nigerian contact they referred to as “The Plug.”

Jordan DeMay, of Michigan, was 17 years old when Nigerian brothers Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and his brother, Samson Ogoshi, 20, posed as a woman on Instagram using a hacked account and struck up a conversation with the teenager. 

The brothers ultimately used the account to blackmail the teenager into sending money and threaten him into sending more until he took his own life in March 2022.

Acting U.S. Attorney Birge noted that the Americans who “profited from this awful, heartbreaking scheme” will now “face the consequences” of their actions.

John DeMay also said he would tell Jordan “every single day” if he had “a chance” that threats from the sextortionist were not the end of his life. (handout)

“The conspiracy offense is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The court will decide the sentences upon consultation with federal sentencing guidelines and the individual circumstances,” Birge said.

 “It’s still happening every day.”

— John DeMay

DeMay has since turned his heartbreak into advocacy, traveling around the country and the world to not only educate Americans on what sextortion is and how to prevent children from falling victim to these scams, but also to promote federal legislation that aims to protect minors online.

“Unfortunately, there are still a lot of sextortion cases across the country,” he said.

The suspect in Jordan’s death, 20-year-old Samson Ogoshi, is one of three suspects from Lagos arrested earlier this month for allegedly hacking Instagram accounts and sexually extorting, or “sextorting,” more than 100 young men online. (handout)

The average age of sextortion victims is between 14 and 17 years old, the FBI said in a press release earlier this year, but the agency noted that any child can become a victim. Offenders of financially motivated sextortion typically originate from African and Southeast Asian countries, according to the FBI. The FBI also saw a 20% increase in sextortion incidents involving minors between October 2022 and March 2023.

Sextortion can lead to suicide and self-harm. Between October 2021 and March 2023, the majority of online financial extortion victims were boys. These reports involved at least 20 suicides, the FBI said. 

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has created a free service called “Take it Down,” which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.

DeMay is a proponent of the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which received House and Senate support last year but ultimately did not make it to the House floor for voting during a lame-duck session. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., are expected to re-introduce the bill this year.