A Nigerian man has been extradited to the United States for charges that he addressed a 17 -year – USA.
In July 2022, the man, Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal, passed through a university woman on social networks and convinced the child to send sexually committed images of himself, according to Federal prosecutors.
Once Mr. Lawal assured the images, he threatened to release them unless the child paid him, authorities said.
Two hours after receiving the threat, the child, Gavin Guffey, shot at his home in Rock Hill, SC, according to his father, Brandon Guffey, who is now a state legislator.
Mr. Lawal, 24, was accused in October 2023 for a child exploitation position that resulted in death after a federal investigation helped by the Nigerian government, according to the Department of Justice. FBI agents arrested him in Lagos, Nigeria, Friday and took him to South Carolina on Saturday.
He is also accused of child pornography distribution; coercion and incentive of a minor; Cyberstalking resulting in death; and interstate threats with the intention of extorting, according to a federal accusation of five positions that was revealed on Monday.
If it is convicted, Mr. Lawal could face a life sentence, according to the Department of Justice. He declared himself innocent, according to judicial documents.
The assigned public defender’s office to represent Mr. Lawal did not immediately respond to a comment request on Monday.
The Nigerian government agreed to extradite him to the United States on the condition that he would not face the death penalty, said Ford Boroughs, the US prosecutor of the South Carolina district.
“I hope the message is clear,” Mrs. Boroughs He said at a press conference After Mr. Lawal was prosecuted on Monday at the United States District Court in Columbia, SC “If you use the Internet to exploit children in our state, will be responsible here in court. We will not allow predators to hide behind a keyboard OA through an ocean. “
Mr. Lawal was arrested at the Lexington County Detention Center before a detention hearing next Monday, according to the United States Prosecutor’s Office in Columbia.
Guffey, who said in an interview on Monday that Mr. Lawal had tried to extort the money after the death of his son, was chosen for the House of Representatives of the South Carolina in November 2022.
The first bill that sponsored, called Gavin’s law, made sexual extortion a serious crime in South Carolina. It was signed in 2023 by Governor Henry McMaster.
Sextortion schemes are a growing challenge often catching young Americans. Of the 13,000 financial sextortion reports that the FBI received from October 2021 to March 2023, the vast majority of them involved children.
Guffey, who attended the reading of Mr. Lawal’s positions on Monday, said he experienced anger and relief in the courtroom.
“I don’t know if I have deciphered all the molar in my rear jaw of tightening my teeth so bad,” he said. But he said he felt that he had taken a significant step to achieve justice “taking into account the small number of people who have been extradited from Nigeria.”
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