Five people have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering in a sextortion scheme that resulted in the death of a Marquette teen.
The defendants from Georgia and Alabama are accused of receiving money extorted from more than 100 men and boys online… then tried to disguise the dirty money as clean.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten says the extortionists instructed victims to send money to designated accounts through various cash apps.
“They would keep a portion of their funds—a portion of the victim’s funds—for themselves and they would convert the rest into Bitcoin, which they would send to Nigeria and ultimately into the hands of the Nigerian sextortionists.”
17-year-old Jordan DeMay killed himself two years ago after he was sexually extorted. He sent 300-dollars to one of the defendants.
Totten says at least 178-thousand dollars was laundered through the scheme.
