GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A 30-year-old Huntsville man was involved in a sextortion scheme that led to the suicide of one of his victims, Michigan prosecutors said Friday.
Dinsimore Guyton Robinson is one of five men indicted this week in connection to the case. The other four reside in Stone Mountain, McDonough, and Lithonia, Georgia, according to the Western District of Michigan.
Our sister station WZZM previously reported three Nigerian nationals were charged in November 2022 for their roles in organizing the scheme, two of whom were extradited to the United States in 2023 and pled guilty this April.
What was the scheme?
According to court affidavits, the Nigerian-based sextortionists pretended to be a young woman in social media accounts and encouraged teenage boys and young men to engage in and produce images of sexually explicit 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 victims were instructed to send money to designated financial accounts through various cash applications.
How do the other men factor in?
Robinson and the other indicted men are alleged to have acted as money launderers in control of the financial accounts. Prosecutors allege the men agreed to keep a portion of the victims' money as a fee, and convert the rest into bitcoin to send on to a co-conspirator, referred to in affidavits as "The Plug."
"The Plug," who as yet has not been indicted, would then keep another portion of the money before sending the remainder to other sextortionists involved in the plot.
"Victim 1"
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, DeMay sent $300 through a cash application to one of the defendants. That defendant then allegedly 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.
The DeMay family has told media outlets in previous interviews that their son was ultimately "goaded" into taking his own life by the man or men posing as a teenage girl extorting him for money.
"Good," one suspect is alleged to have written in a conversation with Jordan. "Do that fast. Or I'll make you do it. I swear to God."
“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.”
If you believe you or someone you know has been the victim of sextortion, contact your local FBI field office, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or report it online at tips.fbi.gov.
If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).