Five U.S. residents have entered or are scheduled to enter guilty pleas in connection with a Nigerian-based sextortion scheme that led to the tragic suicide of a teenage boy in Marquette, Michigan. The international cybercrime ring operated from February 2021 to May 2022, targeting young male victims using hacked social media accounts.
On Wednesday, March 26, Kendall Ormond London Jr., 32, of Lithonia, Georgia, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to conspiracy to launder money related to the sextortion ring. Earlier in January, Dinsimore Guyton Robinson, 30, of Huntsville, Alabama, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Three additional U.S. residents are expected to plead guilty in the coming days, according to court records.
Federal prosecutors revealed that cybercriminals in Nigeria acquired compromised Instagram accounts and posed as a woman named “Dani Roberts” to lure young boys into sharing explicit images.
Once the images were obtained, victims were blackmailed for money under threat of exposure—a tactic that led one teen to take his own life.
The case underscores the growing threat of online sextortion and the importance of cyber vigilance, international cooperation, and stronger safeguards on social media platforms to protect vulnerable users.
London, Robinson, and the three other U.S. defendants collected proceeds through online payment systems, kept about 20 percent for themselves, then converted the rest to bitcoin and sent it to Nigeria, prosecutors said.