Four arrested in ‘sextortion scheme’ that drove San Jose teen to take his life

SAN JOSE Four men in C te d Ivoire have been arrested in connection with a sexual extortion or sextortion scheme that targeted thousands of casualties around the globe including a San Jose teenager who ended up taking his life according to personnel Related Articles CHP Pregnant San Jose woman dies after I- crash Theranos felon Elizabeth Holmes loses again in court options for early freedom narrow Car valued at stolen from Saratoga residence South Bay hospital accused of ignoring manager s alleged San Jose steakhouse sex attack on nurse Will San Jose get a new police unit to arrest homeless residents who refuse shelter Alfred Kassi an Ivorian citizen was identified as the primary suspect following a lengthy probe by U S and Ivorian law enforcement the U S Department of Justice declared in a news release Friday Three of his accomplices were identified as Oumarou Ouedraogo Moussa Diaby and Oumar Cisse Ryan Last a -year-old senior at Sobrato High School died by suicide at his South San Jose home on Feb An probe revealed the teen had corresponded online with an individual pretending to be a -year-old woman later identified by bureaucrats as Kassi The conversation reportedly turned intimate and the two exchanged sexually revealing photos Ryan was then recounted he had to pay the other person or else his photo would be revealed publicly After the teen announced he could not afford to pay that much the amount was lowered to He paid the smaller sum but the monetary demands continued When Kassi was arrested on April he allegedly had the messages he sent to the teen on his phone Leadership declared Ouedraogo helped Kassi launder the money he received from the victim Diaby and Cisse meanwhile were part of Kassi s alleged sexual extortion grid and admitted to their own sexual extortion crimes according to officials In September another accomplice based in the United States Jonathan Kassi was sentenced to time served and supervised release after he admitted to one count of felony extortion of the teen Jonathan Kassi is not related to Alfred Kassi The leadership of C te d Ivorie does not extradite its citizens so Alfred Kassi Ouedraogo Diaby and Cisse will be prosecuted in their own country under Ivorian cybercrime statutes The Federal Bureau of Scrutiny is scrutinizing the scenario with help from the San Jose Police Department the U S embassy in Abidjan and Meta according to officials Casualties of sexual extortion or anyone who knows a victim of sexual extortion can contact the FBI at - - or file a overview with the Internet Crime Center at www ic gov