GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten today announced the unsealing of a federal indictment charging five U.S.-based defendants with conspiring to commit money laundering that facilitated the previously announced foreign sextortion scheme resulting in the death of Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old high school student from Marquette, Michigan.
“Every day Americans fall victim to financial scams, including sextortion, romance scams, and consumer fraud,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten. “Senior citizens, children, and teenagers are especially vulnerable. The result of these crimes can be devastating, as the death of Jordan DeMay makes painfully clear. Today’s charges send a loud and clear message that we will chase down everyone who enables these crimes, including the U.S.-based money launderers.”
In November 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan charged three Nigerian nationals in a sextortion scheme that resulted in the death of Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old high school student from Marquette, Michigan, and targeted more than 100 other victims. Two of the three defendants in that case were extradited to the United States in August 2023 and pled guilty in April 2024.
The indictment announced today is a separate-but-related case that charges the following five U.S.-based defendants with a single count of Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering:
- Johnathan Demetrius Green, 32, Stone Mountain, Georgia
- Jarell Daivon Williams, 31, McDonough, Georgia
- Dinsimore Guyton Robinson, 30, Huntsville, Alabama
- Kendall Ormond London, Jr., 32, Lithonia, Georgia
- Brian Keith Coldmon, Jr., 30, Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Money laundering is a federal crime that covers financial transactions involving the proceeds of criminal activity, where the goal is often to conceal the criminal nature of those proceeds. The government alleges that the defendants knowingly agreed to conduct, or attempt to conduct, financial transactions involving the proceeds of a crime, knowing that the transactions were designed to conceal some aspect of the underlying crime. The charge in this case carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
As Samuel and Samson Ogoshi have admitted in their plea agreements, the Nigerian-based sextortionists devised a fraudulent scheme where they pretended to be a young woman in social media accounts and encouraged teenage boys and young men to engage in sexually explicit conduct and produce images of that conduct. Once the victims produced and sent those images, the sextortionists used those images to blackmail their victims for money, threatening to send the images to others, including families, friends, and classmates of the victims. The sextortionists instructed their victims to send money to designated financial accounts through various cash applications.
The indictment in today’s related case alleges that the defendants – the U.S.-based money launderers – controlled these designated financial accounts. They would keep a portion of the victims’ funds – typically 20% – and then convert the rest into bitcoin. The defendants would then send the bitcoin to an unindicted Nigerian co-conspirator, whom they referred to as “The Plug.” The Plug would keep a portion of the bitcoin funds, and send the remainder to Samuel Ogoshi, Samson Ogoshi, Ezekiel Robert, and other sextortionists. The indictment alleges that the U.S.-based defendants laundered at least $178,658 in funds representing the proceeds of the sextortion scheme.
Among these alleged financial transactions conducted by the U.S-based defendants was a transaction that involved an individual identified as “Victim 1” in the indictment. With the permission of his parents, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is sharing that Victim 1 was Jordan DeMay. On March 25, 2022, Jordan DeMay sent $300 through a cash application to Defendant Johnathan Green. Green transferred a portion of those funds into another cash application and purchased bitcoin, which he sent to the Plug. The Plug kept a portion of those funds and sent the remainder to the sextortionists.
FBI arrested the defendants on Thursday, August 1, 2024 and each defendant appeared in federal court yesterday for their initial appearance. We anticipate these defendants will be scheduled for an arraignment in Grand Rapids before Judge Jonker in the coming weeks.
“The five defendants who allegedly conspired to aid Nigerian sextortionists through money laundering participated in the financial manipulation of vulnerable and young victims,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan. “The FBI continues to spread awareness about financial sextortion and will continue to work with our partners at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
In the related case, United States v. Samuel Ogoshi et al., the Court is scheduled to sentence Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and Samson Ogoshi, 20, of Lagos, Nigeria at the federal courthouse in Marquette, Michigan, on September 5, 2024. The details of the sentencing, including live access to the audio by Zoom or a video of the proceeding at the federal courthouse in Grand Rapids, are provided in the attached Notice filed by the Court.
The FBI is investigating this case and AUSA Davin Reust is prosecuting it.
The charges in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.
