Panicking? Cory Mills allegedly harasses Miss United States to try to kill bombshell story



Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida seemingly panicked on Tuesday evening, allegedly contacting Miss United States repeatedly after he learned that she had gone to the media and the police about his troubling behavior following their breakup earlier this year.

As Blaze News reported on Tuesday, Lindsey Langston, the reigning Miss United States, has accused Mills of threatening to physically harm her future romantic partners and even to share sexually explicit material of her with them after she broke up with him in February. Langston told Blaze News that she ended her three-year relationship with Mills and moved out of their shared residence in New Smyrna, Florida, after discovering that Mills, who is believed to still be married to wife Rana Al Saadi, had yet another girlfriend, Sarah Raviani, living at Mills' penthouse apartment in Washington, D.C.

'Only you can stop this.'

In an attempt to learn Mills' side of the story, Blaze News and other media outlets, including Drop Site's Roger Sollenberger, reached out to Mills and his staff for comment about Langston's bombshell accusations. The requests for comment seemingly sent Mills and his team into a tailspin.

Langston told Blaze News that even though she had previously blocked Mills' phone number and social media accounts, he managed to circumvent the block by using Raviani's phone to call her Tuesday. Langston, who did not recognize Raviani's phone number, indicated that she hung up quickly after recognizing Mills' voice.

Langston then began receiving text messages from Raviani's number as well, she said. These communications used emotional blackmail, begging Langston not to expose Mills because such public exposure might harm Mills' son, Langston said.

One message Langston received read, "Only you can stop this," while another said, "I understand you [sic] mom is going through a lot of mental health issues," according to Drop Site.

Raviani did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Miss United States accuses Rep. Cory Mills of sextortion, accepting ‘money bags’

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Catherine Treadwell, Mills' chief of staff, also sent messages to Langston, attempting to concern-monger before threatening Langston with litigation, a screenshot obtained by Blaze News showed.

"Hey! What is going on? Is everything ok?" said the first Treadwell message, timestamped at 5:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday.

"This reporter reached out with a lot of accusations. Can you fill me in? I dont [sic] want to be caught off guard bc [Mills' son] reads everything," read the second message, according to the screenshot.

"I care about you and I don't want you to get in trouble in anyway [sic]," came the third. "FL is a two person consent state which means any texts shared with a third party including reporter without consent from both parties."

The screenshot reviewed by Blaze News showed no response from Langston, and Anthony Sabatini, an attorney who represented Langston briefly and who ran against Mills in the 2022 Republican congressional primary, confirmed she never replied to those messages.

'The threats made by Mills' staffers against Ms. Langston in an attempt to pressure her to lie and drop the story are criminal and a disturbing abuse of power.'

Blaze News recently received similarly threatening messages from yet another Mills team member. In response to a request for comment about a separate story involving private messages, Jillian Anderson, Mills' communications director, told Blaze News in an email on July 20:

As a resident of Florida, Congressman Mills has not consented to any third party using or disclosing his private text messages. Any unauthorized use of these communications would be in direct violation of state law and may expose the user to both criminal penalties — up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine — and civil liability, including liquidated damages of at least $1,000 per violation plus potential punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

Therefore, use or publication of Congressman Mills’ text messages without his express permission would be unlawful. We request that you refrain from using them unless proper, informed consent is obtained from him.

The alleged threats have not deterred Langston, who has already filed to obtain a restraining order against Mills. A judge is expected to rule on the restraining order sometime Wednesday.

Mills' alleged communications with Langston on Tuesday night will be used to bolster the case for a restraining order, a source told Blaze News.

"The threats made by Mills' staffers against Ms. Langston in an attempt to pressure her to lie and drop the story are criminal and a disturbing abuse of power," Sabatini said in a statement to Blaze News.

Sabatini likewise called the threats of litigation against his former client "totally made up." Sabatini posted to social media screenshots of some of Mills' recent alleged messages to Langston, claiming they are evidence that Mills committed "sexual extortion," a second-degree felony in Florida.

Blaze News reached out to Mills for comment on these latest allegations of harassment, and Anderson replied, calling our reporting on the sextortion accusations "gossip."

Mills offered a different response about the sextortion accusations to Politico, claiming Sabatini is "weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack."

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Miss United States accuses Rep. Cory Mills of sextortion, accepting ‘money bags’



An American beauty queen has now accused Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida of threatening to send sex videos to anyone she tried to date after she broke up with him earlier this year, prompting an investigation by the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Blaze News reached out to Mills for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

‘He's pushing things along’

They both wanted to keep their relationship a secret when they began dating shortly after meeting in November 2021, Lindsey Langston told Blaze News. She, a young 20-something who was elected Columbia County Republican state committeewoman last August and crowned Miss United States in October, was busy with pageant work and growing her influence in Florida politics.

Mills was then still almost a year away from winning his first congressional race — and, according to Langston, still in the midst of a nasty divorce.

'[In] August, you'd only be, like, eight weeks pregnant whenever you gave up your title.'

Langston describes Mills as “captivating” and charismatic and claimed that he often spoke of a future with her. “He's met my family. ... He's reaching out to them about talking to them about an engagement,” she recalled.

Within the last year or so, he began expressing interest in starting a family with her.

“He's talking about, you know, ‘I'm getting older. I would like to have other children. How do you feel about starting to try?’” she told Blaze News.

“‘[In] August, you'd only be, like, eight weeks pregnant whenever you gave up your title. We could get married that weekend,’” he continued, according to Langston.

“He's pushing things along.”

RELATED: GOP Rep. Cory Mills explains why he was married by a radical Islamic cleric

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While Langston was interested in continuing the relationship, she adamantly refused to move in with Mills until he was officially divorced. She said he told her in late May 2024 that “they were just waiting on a stamp, and then the divorce would be finalized. Everything's settled.”

Though multiple sources have told Blaze News that Mills routinely claimed he was no longer married, as of the time of publication, Blaze News could not confirm that Mills is divorced.

Nevertheless, Langston believed the divorce had occurred, and the couple moved into a beach house in New Smyrna, Florida, together sometime last summer, while Mills also had a penthouse apartment in D.C.

Between these two residences, Mills was under obligation to pay $33,000 in rent per month, $12,000 for the beach house and a staggering $21,000 for the D.C. penthouse, the latter of which he has had difficulty paying. Just last month, his landlord filed an eviction notice after Mills apparently failed to pay more than $85,000 in rent from March to July.

Mills, whose congressional salary is just over $170,000 but whose estimated net worth is somewhere between $8 million and $40.35 million, blamed the missed payments on technical issues and process failures.

‘People would come with money bags’

The relationship was rife with drama, Langston indicated to Blaze News. She saw affectionate photos with other women, endured holidays alone without explanation or even last-minute cancellation — and even witnessed shady cash transfers.

“There were lots of times he had somebody meet him at the house ... to bring him cash,” Langston claimed, noting that she did not know who the person was.

'Cory did leave with money.'

“People would come with money bags, and he would get cash,” she added.

She also recalled an incident at a steakhouse in Washington, D.C. She and Mills were having dinner with Shannon Doyle and Jeffrey Kroeker, Mills’ fellow corporate directors at PACEM North Canada Inc., according to a filing that was updated in December. “They did not speak about business at all, but Cory did leave with money,” Langston said.

Mills and his estranged wife, Rana Al Saadi, co-founded PACEM Defense, an international weapons company, after they were married by a radical Muslim clericin 2014. Al Saadi is still listed as the executive chairwoman on the company’s website, which also repeatedly refers to her as “Mrs. Al Saadi.”

RELATED: Rep. Mills’ risky road trip through Syria raises eyebrows

Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

When questioned by Blaze News about his business dealings earlier this year, Mills said: “I don't take money from the company. I don't get money from the company.” He also claimed that he has “zero decision-making in this company,” while leaving the details ambiguous: “I think I've divested from one company, and I think I'm in a blind trust for another. I'd have to go back and look; I couldn't honestly tell you.”

Doyle declined Blaze News' request for comment. Blaze News reached out to Kroeker for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

Last year, the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct board opened an investigation into how Mills acquired some of his 2022 campaign funds. A House Ethics Committee investigation into Mills’ campaign financing remains ongoing. In a previous interview with Blaze News, Mills claimed that the complaint was filed by his “primary opponent” and noted that the OCC “is known to have partisan bias.”

Mills has also taken several trips to the Middle East since becoming a congressman, including an eyebrow-raising car ride without U.S. government security through Hezbollah-controlled territory after a private meeting with the president of Syria.

‘Tell every guy you date’

After more than three tumultuous years together, Langston and Mills broke up in February 2025 after Sarah Raviani, whom Mills was also apparently dating at the time, called police from Mills’ D.C. apartment, alleging he had engaged in domestic violence.

On February 19, Raviani told police that “her significant other for over a year” had “grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door.” She later recanted, and Mills was never charged.

As Blaze News has previously reported, until this domestic disturbance made headlines, even some members of his own staff were apparently unaware that Mills was still married.

RELATED: Cory Mills vs. the truth: Top 10 times the GOP wunderkind played fast and loose with the facts

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Though Langston moved out of the beach house after that incident and considered the relationship over, Mills continued to contact her, she told Blaze News.

His tone and the substance of their conversation soon escalated, and Mills eventually lashed out, threatening to harm anyone Langston was seeing — and to share sexually explicit photos and videos involving her, she said.

'Hope you hold your crown to the end.'

According to screenshots shared with Blaze News, some of his messages are damning.

“You want to date or be with someone else. Be my guest. But they need to know well in advance that if we cross paths, I don’t care this week, this month, or this decade. They better damn well know it’s coming every time,” he apparently wrote at one point.

“May want to tell every guy you date that if we run into each other at any point. Strap up cowboy,” he allegedly wrote in another.

On yet another occasion, he seemed to threaten some hypothetical love interest of Langston, apparently telling her, “Let him put his actions behind his mouth.” He followed that message with “I can send him a few videos of you as well,” and “Oh, I still have them,” the screenshots showed.

When Langston tried to make sure she understood what he was saying, asking, “So I can be with you, be alone, or be scared that you’ll hurt whoever is in my life in the future?” Mills replied, “Take it how you want,” one screenshot revealed.

"Hope you hold your crown to the end," he apparently added in another.

Langston showed Blaze News messages through the end of May 2025, as well as a few in June. After Langston told Mills on June 12 to leave her alone once and for all, Mills again seemingly threatened to share compromising images of her, allegedly responding, “Get me his number and I can send him videos. Take care.”

Langston told Blaze News that these alleged threats have her worried. “Am I gonna wake up one day to videos of us having sex on social media?” she wondered. “Because I know he has them, and he's put it in writing.”

‘It’s very manipulative and calculating’

In May, President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act, which makes sharing or threatening to share revenge porn online a federal crime. Like nearly every other member of Congress, both Democrat and Republican alike, Mills voted for the Take It Down Act earlier this year, giving Trump his first major bipartisan achievement since his inauguration back into office in January. The Take It Down Act was so important to the Trump family that the president even had his wife, Melania, sign it as well.

“This will be the first-ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imagery posted without subjects' consent,” President Trump said at the time. “We will not tolerate online sexual exploitation.”

'This is sexual extortion and sexual blackmail to an extreme degree.'

Mills is not accused of violating Take It Down, which specifically prohibits sharing sexually explicit material online. However, Take It Down does expressly condemn “any person who intentionally threatens to” publish intimate visual depictions “for the purpose of intimidation, coercion, extortion, or to create mental distress.”

Florida law also addresses similar issues related to threats and extortion: “Whoever, either verbally or by a written or printed communication, maliciously threatens to ... impute any deformity or lack of chastity to another ... with intent to compel the person so threatened, or any other person, to do any act or refrain from doing any act against his or her will, commits a felony of the second degree.”

Langston believes that one of the reasons Mills targeted her for a relationship was because he presumed that her pageant career and political ties would likely keep her quiet if their relationship ever turned sour.

“It's very manipulative and calculated, like, who he picks because they have a reputation, and he knows that they're not going to just blow it up,” she explained.

RELATED: Stolen valor? Veterans dispute Cory Mills’ record: 'He fooled a lot of us'

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Despite the risks, Langston decided to come forward anyway. On July 14, she filed a report with the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office about Mills’ alleged threats of releasing revenge porn against her. She then spoke with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement a week later.

The police report confirmed that Langston gave investigators at the sheriff’s office the same basic story she gave Blaze News. “Since February 20th of 2025 Cory has contacted Lindsey numerous times on numerous different accounts threatening to release nude images and videos of her, to include recorded videos of her and Cory engaging in sexual acts,” said the report obtained by Blaze News.

“Lindsey stated with Cory frequently absent from their New Smyrna home, they partook in exchanging sexual images and videos with each other. The threats were made when Cory believed Lindsey to have other romantic partners in her life after the break up,” it added.

Langston’s attorney, Anthony Sabatini, who ran against Mills in the Republican congressional primary in 2022, indicated that Mills is receiving special treatment from law enforcement because he is a member of Congress.

“This is sexual extortion and sexual blackmail to an extreme degree and a clear violation of Florida's extortion statute, section 836.06,” Sabatini said in a statement to Blaze News.

“If this investigation wasn't moving slowly due to him being a ‘political official,’ Mills would already be in handcuffs right now.”

Now that Langston has gone to the police, she wonders whether the risk was worth it.

“Is he just going to get a slap on the wrist with this? And am I just poking the bear? Because he does have very much a ‘if it's not my way, I'll burn the whole world down. I don't care,’” type of attitude, Langston told Blaze News.

Mills certainly attempted to convince Langston that her future in American politics was beginning to look bleak, two ominous screenshots revealed.

“Your name is floating out there and it’s not in a good way,” one message said.

“Lots of talk in Mar a Lago and within some DeSantis circle about you,” added another, followed by, “Just letting you know.”

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Your kids' iPhones may be the most dangerous things they own



What’s an acceptable level of online child sexual abuse, blackmail, and sextortion? How many teen suicides must happen before someone acts? Most parents would say the answer is obvious: zero.

Apple doesn’t seem to agree. Despite serving as the constant digital companion for millions of American kids, the company has done nothing to rein in the iMessage app — a tool that now functions as an unregulated playground for child predators. Apple has shrugged off the problem while iMessage becomes the wild west of child exploitation: unchecked, unreported, and deadly.

It’s long past time for Apple to confront the truth: Its inaction empowers predators. And that makes the company complicit and accountable.

You wouldn’t leave a toddler alone by the pool. You wouldn’t hand your 9-year-old the keys to a pickup. And when you drive that truck, you don’t let your kid ride on the hood. But every day, parents hand their children a device that could be just as dangerous: the iPhone.

That device follows them everywhere — to school, to bed, into the darkest corners of the internet. The threat doesn’t just come from YouTube or TikTok. It’s baked into iMessage itself — the default communication tool on every iPhone, the one parents use to text their kids.

Unlike social media platforms or games, iMessage gives parents almost no tools to limit its use or increase safety. No meaningful restrictions. No guardrails. No accountability.

Criminals understand this — and they take full advantage. They generate fake nude images of boys and send them via iMessage. Then, they threaten to release the images to the victims’ classmates and followers unless they pay up. It’s extortion. It’s emotional torture. And it often ends in tragedy.

This isn’t rare. It’s growing. Online child-sexual abuse and interaction are spreading fast — and Apple refuses to act.

The statistics are outrageous:

Why do predators prefer iMessage over apps like WhatsApp or Snapchat? According to law enforcement and online safety experts, iMessage offers “an appealing venue” for grooming — a place where predators can build trust with your child. They identify victims on public platforms, then move the conversation to iMessage, where no safety guardrails exist.

RELATED: Is your child being exposed to pedophiles in the metaverse?

ljubaphoto via iStock/Getty Images

And children trust it. That familiar blue bubble? Apple teaches them it means the message came from a “trusted source.” Not just another text — another iPhone.

Apple claims to offer a “communication safety” feature that blurs nude images sent to kids through iMessage. But here’s the catch: The alert lets the child view the image anyway. That’s not a safety feature. That’s a fig leaf.

Apple knows exactly what iMessage enables — a criminal playground for sextortion, child sexual abuse, and worse. But Apple doesn’t act. Why? Because it doesn’t have to. The company sees no urgent economic risk. Today, 88% of American teens own iPhones. This fall, 25% are expected to upgrade to iPhone 17 — up from 22% last year.

The numbers tell the rest of the story.

In 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified more than 20 million cases of suspected online child sexual exploitation — much of it sextortion. Instagram reported 3.3 million. WhatsApp logged more than 1.8 million. Snapchat topped 1.1 million.

Apple reported 250.

No level of child sexual exploitation is acceptable. Not one instance. Content providers and app developers across the industry have taken steps to protect children. Apple, by contrast, has shrugged. Its silence is willful. Its inaction is a choice.

It’s long past time for Apple to confront the truth: Its inaction empowers predators. And that makes the company complicit and accountable — economically, legally, and morally.

70-year-old woman accused of tricking boy into sending her nude photos of himself, sextorting teen



An elderly woman from Tennessee is accused of sextorting a teen boy from Minnesota, according to authorities.

The Anoka County Sheriff's Office reportedly was notified of a financial sextortion plot involving a 17-year-old boy in Linwood Township on Sept. 30, 2022.

The woman allegedly threatened to share the explicit photos with his friends and family if he didn't pay her money.

The victim — now 19 years old — allegedly began communicating with an unknown woman online.

KMSP-TV reported that the boy sent nude photos of himself to the woman. The woman allegedly threatened to share the explicit photos with his friends and family if he didn't pay her money.

Authorities said the geriatric alleged sextortionist demanded he send money to her Venmo account, after which the teen purportedly sent an initial payment of $1,700.

The alleged victim ended up sending the woman a total of $2,204.54 by September 2022, according to law enforcement.

Authorities identified 70-year-old Stephanie Godby as the alleged sextortion suspect.

Law enforcement reportedly linked Godby’s birth date, social security number, phone number, and address to the Venmo account that received payments from the boy.

Police have yet to locate Godby.

Godby — of Dandridge, Tennessee — was charged in absentia with one count of coercion and one count of theft by swindle.

Law enforcement noted that there could be additional sextortion victims. Godby's Venmo account had received similar payments from people around the country, according to subpoenaed records.

According to the records, one payment sent to Godby's Venmo account had a message that read: “Leave my husband alone for good, this is all you’re getting from me.”

Detectives are still investigating the alleged sextortion scheme and are attempting to collect additional information regarding her bank account and phone records.

Law enforcement did not disclose how the alleged victim and Godby initially met.

The FBI defines financially motivated sextortion as: "When predators pose as someone else online to coerce victims into taking and sending sexually explicit photos and videos — and then immediately demand payment or threaten to release the photo to the victim’s family and friends."

According to FBI data, financially motivated sextortion victims are typically males between the ages of 14 and 17.

From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations had received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion schemes involved at least 12,600 victims — mostly boys — and led to at least 20 suicides.

As Blaze News reported in August, a young man from Pennsylvania allegedly believed he had met a girl online and sent her sexually explicit images of himself. However, the recipients of his photos reportedly turned out to be two Nigerian males who were financially sextorting the alleged victim — who committed suicide after not having enough money for the blackmail demand.

Blaze News previously reported about a 16-year-old Mississippi boy who committed suicide after being hoodwinked in a sextortion scheme in 2023.

In 2022, a 17-year-old Michigan boy committed suicide after falling victim to a sextortion scheme orchestrated by three Nigerian men.

South Carolina state lawmaker Rep. Brandon Guffey (R) lost his 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, to suicide in 2022 because of a sextortion scheme.

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Grief-stricken father launches personal crusade to help FBI find suspects whose sextortion plot led to son's suicide



When a young man committed suicide last year after falling victim to a financially motivated sextortion plot, his grief-stricken father went on a crusade to help the FBI track down the scamming suspects on another continent.

The FBI defines financially motivated sextortion as: "When predators pose as someone else online to coerce victims into taking and sending sexually explicit photos and videos — and then immediately demand payment or threaten to release the photo to the victim’s family and friends."

Within days of his son's suicide, the father discovered "suspicious banking transactions" to an unknown phone number from his son's Zelle account.

In 2023, a young Pennsylvania man fell victim to a financially motivated sextortion scheme. He allegedly believed he had met a girl online on Instagram, Google, and Snapchat. He reportedly sent the girl sexually explicit images of himself, according to USA Today.

But two men from Nigeria purportedly posed as a girl to financially extort the young man.

The Nigerian men in a text message reportedly threatened to release the compromising material and "ruin" the victim's "career" if he did not make a $1,000 blackmail payment to them, according to court documents.

"The extortion scheme that targeted [the victim] is consistent with a trend of foreign-based organized groups targeting victims in the United States in various sextortion schemes," FBI Special Agent Jennifer Zenszer wrote.

The victim, identified only as J.S. in court documents, reportedly told the suspects in a text message, "I don't even think I have enough for it."

Three minutes after sending that message in January 2023, J.S. died by suicide, federal officials said.

Following his son's tragic death, the father was determined to locate the suspects who allegedly drove his son to take his own life.

Within days of his son's suicide, the father discovered "suspicious banking transactions" to an unknown phone number from his son's Zelle account. The father forwarded the information to the FBI — which used the phone number to track down an email address with the name "Antonia Diaz." The phone number was linked to several other email addresses using different variations of the name "Antonia Diaz," according to Fox News.

Court documents say FBI agents twice issued subpoenas to Google and connected the email addresses to a phone number in Nigeria.

In March 2023, the father logged into his son's Snapchat account and saw that J.S. had been receiving messages from a user under the name of "Alice." The father messaged the user, who then demanded money.

A Pennsylvania district court judge subpoenaed Snapchat for information regarding the "Alice" account. Authorities said the Snapchat account was linked to another phone number based in Nigeria.

"J.S.’s father later reviewed J.S.’s Apple iPhone, and observed that notifications of emails from ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM appeared repeatedly," court documents said. "J.S.’s father emailed that address using his own email account, identifying himself as J.S.’s father and requesting a phone call. ALICEDAVE660@GMAIL.COM refused to speak with J.S.’s father by phone, and instead directed via iMessage that J.S. ‘reply me if he doesn’t want trouble.’"

The father then sent screenshots of the communication from the emails from "Alice" to law enforcement.

Days later, an undercover FBI agent sent a friend request to "Alice" on Snapchat. The agent posed as a friend of J.S., and the alleged scammer attempted another blackmail scheme but provided bank account usernames, believing the person would send more money.

Law enforcement named two suspects — both from Nigeria — in the sextortion scheme: Imoleayo Samuel Aina, 26, and Samuel Olasunkanmi Abiodun, 24.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that Aina had been charged with cyberstalking, interstate threat to injure reputation, and receiving proceeds of extortion.

Aina and Abiodun are both charged with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.

If convicted of all the charges against them, Aina faces a maximum possible sentence of life in prison, and Abiodun faces a maximum possible imprisonment sentence of 40 years.

The suspects were arrested in Nigeria, and the FBI took custody of them on July 31.

On Aug. 2, Aina and Abiodun appeared in federal magistrate court in Philadelphia before U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth T. Hey.

According to the FBI, financially motivated sextortion victims are typically males between the ages of 14 and 17, and the schemes can lead to victim suicide.

From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion schemes involved at least 12,600 victims — mostly boys — and led to at least 20 suicides.

There was a 20% spike in reports of financially motivated sextortion in the six-month period from October 2022 to March 2023 compared to the same time period the previous year.

The FBI noted that financially motivated sextortion criminals usually are located outside the United States and known to operate out of West African countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast or Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines.

Blaze News previously reported about a 16-year-old Mississippi boy who committed suicide after getting entangled in a sextortion plot in 2023.

In 2022, a 17-year-old Michigan boy committed suicide after falling victim to a sextortion scheme that three Nigerian men orchestrated.

South Carolina state lawmaker Rep. Brandon Guffey (R) lost his 17-year-old son, Gavin Guffey, to a suicide in 2022 due to a sextortion scheme.

"The most important thing for [victims] to realize is to remember that they are a victim of a crime," Guffey told Fox News. "They are not the cause of this happening. They are not in trouble because they sent an image. And then I always recommend to not delete the messages. Instead, screenshot them and go offline. Disconnect your account because they will continue to harass you."

Special Agent in Charge Douglas DePodesta of the FBI Memphis Field Office said, "The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes. Protecting children is one of the highest priorities of the FBI. We need parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does."

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3 Nigerian men charged in sextortion scheme that ended with Michigan teen committing suicide



Three Nigerian men have been charged in an alleged sextortion scheme that ended with a Michigan teen committing suicide.

On March 25, 2022, 17-year-old Jordan DeMay was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators believe that the teen committed suicide after being the victim of a sextortion scheme by three Nigerian men.

DeMay – a senior student and football player at Marquette High School in Michigan – was allegedly contacted by an Instagram account that appeared to be a teenage girl. The alleged teen girl engaged DeMay in sexual conversations, according to court documents. The alleged teen girl reportedly requested sexually explicit images from the victim.

Once the alleged teen girl account received the sexual images, the real owners of the account purportedly exposed themselves.

The fake account was allegedly run by three Nigerian men who attempted to extort more than 100 people.

The Nigerians would allegedly blackmail their victims, threatening to expose the graphic images to the public if a ransom was not paid.

The Nigerians demanded that DeMay pay them $1,000 to not reveal the explicit photos, according to court docs. DeMay allegedly paid the exploiters $300, but they still threatened to release the private photos, even presenting the option of sending them to his family and employees.

WLUC-TV reported on the tragic final conversation between the teen and the Nigerian men extorting him.

DeMay told the men, "I'm going to kill myself right now," adding that it was caused by the abuse he suffered from the sextortion scheme.

The Nigerian men reportedly told DeMay, "Good," and then said, "Do it fast."

The Nigerian men demanded that DeMay pay them $800, threatening, "Deal or no deal."

DeMay allegedly said that he only had $150, and the extorters said, "Now goodbye. Enjoy your miserable life."

After DeMay committed suicide, the sextortion scheme was revealed to authorities.

Earlier this year, FBI agents from Michigan traveled to Nigeria to conduct an investigation into the allegations of extortion. With cooperation with Nigerian law enforcement, three Nigerian men were arrested.

Samuel Ogoshi, 22, Samson Ogoshi, 20, and Ezekiel Ejehem Robert, 19, all of Lagos, Nigeria, were arrested and are awaiting extradition to the United States for prosecution. All three men have been charged with conspiracy to sexually exploit minors, conspiracy to distribute child pornography, and conspiracy to commit stalking through the internet.

Ogoshi is reportedly charged with sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a minimum of 30 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said, "Sextortion is a horrible crime that can leave especially younger victims feeling ashamed with nowhere to turn. My heart goes out to the family of Jordan DeMay. Nothing can bring Jordan back, but my office is committed to securing justice and, alongside Jordan’s family, sending an urgent warning so others can protect themselves and their families. We will travel the world to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable."

James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan, added, "Financial sextortion is a global crisis that impacts teens in our country and around the globe. That’s why the FBI is working hand in hand with our domestic and international law enforcement partners to prevent youth from becoming victims of this tragic crime and to hold those who target our teens in this manner accountable – no matter where in the world they may be."

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