A teen’s death in a small Michigan town led the FBI and police to an online sexual extortion scheme

WASHINGTON — Last year, a teenager in a small Michigan town killed himself after an online chat turned to demands that he pay money to keep intimate photos secret.

WASHINGTON — Last year, a teenager in a small Michigan town killed himself after an online chat turned to demands that he pay money to keep intimate photos secret. He was one of dozens of people targeted online by two men extradited from Nigeria to face charges, FBI director Christopher Wray said Saturday.

The arrests came after the FBI joined with police in Michigan to investigate the death of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay, one in thousands of American teenagers targeted in a sharp rise in online “sextortion” cases in recent years.

“They will face charges in the U.S. for what they did to Jordan, but also unfortunately, a whole bunch of other young men and teenage boys,” Wray said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You’re talking about a crime that doesn’t respect borders. We make sure our partnerships don’t have any borders either.”

Wray highlighted the case in a speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police about the ways the agency assists police in tackling violent crime, fentanyl and gangs. In a year where tensions between Congress and the FBI have run high at times, Wray focused on the agency’s relationships with U.S. police departments large and small, including some 6,000 task force officers around the country.

“The threats that we face collectively around the country are incredibly daunting,” he said. “By far and away, the most effective means of tackling those threats is teamwork.”