Four men from West Africa have been arrested in a sick “sextortion” scam that caused a California teen to take his own life, the Department of Justice announced.
High school senior Ryan Last, 17, killed himself in February 2022 just hours after he sent nude photos online to a scammer he believed to be a 20-year-old woman — who then threatened to make the image public if he refused to pay.
“He didn’t realize these people were taking advantage of him, and he was terrified of what it would do to us,” Last’s mother, Pauline Stuart, told the Los Angeles Times.
Last’s death sparked a massive international investigation into the scheme that targeted “thousands of victims” — including minors — in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Italy, according to federal prosecutors.
Last was contacted on Meta by Alfred Kassi, of Côte d’Ivoire, who, posing as a young woman, allegedly sent an explicit photo and then asked for one in return.
Kassi then immediately demanded $5,000 from the boy, threatening to share the nude photo with Last’s friends and family, CNN reported.
Kassi lowered the price to just $150 when the desperate teen said he couldn’t afford what he’d asked. Stuart said that once her son forwarded the money, the scammers “continued to hound him.”
Before taking his own life, Last wrote a note apologizing for what had happened, his mother said.
Kassi was arrested by Ivorian law enforcement on April 29. He was found with the sextortion exchange still on his phone, according to the Justice Department.
Investigators also identified several money laundering accomplices who had helped Kassi move Last’s $150.
One of those alleged money launderers is Oumarou Ouedraogo, who was arrested by Ivorian law enforcement on April 25.
Two other Ivorians, Moussa Diaby and Oumar Cisse, were also part of Kassi’s sextortion network and confessed to their own sextortion crimes.
A US-based accomplice, Jonathan Kassi — unrelated to Alfred Kassi — was convicted in 2023 in a California State Court and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Côte d’Ivoire does not extradite its own citizens, meaning the four defendants living in Africa will be prosecuted in their home country under Ivorian cybercrime laws, according to the DOJ.
Stuart said she hopes the arrests send a strong message to scammers targeting Americans from abroad.
“We’re feeling grateful that [law enforcement officials] didn’t give up and they continued to work,” Stuart said.
“Unfortunately, it will never bring Ryan back. It’s one of those double-edged swords,” she added.
“My son’s still gone, but I’m hoping that, with this arrest, it brings awareness and scares the scammers, because they kind of feel safe over in a foreign country. They don’t think they can be touched.”
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