(NewsNation) — Four Delaware residents have been charged with alleged involvement in an extortion relating to sexual practices.
In a press release from the Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, Wilmington’s Sidi Diakite, 30; Almamy Diaby, 22; Abdul Aziz Sangare, 26; and Abdoul Aziz Traore, 31 were part of an operation wherein they allegedly attempted to extort approximately $6.9 million from thousands of victims globally.
Ultimately, the individuals and their alleged co-conspirators extorted $1.9 million from CashApp and ApplePay from victims across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
The indictment also saw Hadja Kone, 28, of Wilmington, Delaware, and Siaka Ouattara, 22, of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire charged.
In the alleged scheme, conspirators posed as women online and largely communicated with young men and minors from the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
They would offer to, or send explicit content of women to these men and engage in webcam or live video chat with the men and secretly record them performing sexual acts or exposing their genitals.
The victims would then be extorted with the alleged perpetrators threatening to send the videos to friends, family, or colleagues.
All six men have also been charged with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and to send interstate threats.
Each count comes with a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. The FBI is still investigating the matter and urges anyone who is, or knows of someone being exploited via “sextortion” to alert its local branch, call 1-800-CALL-FBI or report it online via the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).