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Nigerian man held on digital sextortion charges in South Carolina

A man from Nigeria is in custody after the FBI says he extorted a local lawmaker’s son into sending him explicit photos.

WSOC reports South Carolina Republican Representative Brandon Guffey’s son died by suicide in 2022. U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs said the suspect, 24-year-old Hassanbunhussein Abolore Lawal, posed as a college girl and asked for explicit photos from Guffey’s son. After he sent them, Lawal threatened to release the photos online. He was extradited from Nigeria to South Carolina after being indicted in 2023 by a federal grand jury.

Rep. Guffey has also filed a lawsuit in federal court against Meta (formerly Facebook), the parent company of Instagram. The pending lawsuit alleges the companies failed to protect unsuspecting minors from online sexual attacks.