EXCLUSIVE Mother of teenager who died by suicide over 'sextortion' scam speaks out after arrest of cruel African gang
The mother of a teen 'sextortion' victim who died by suicide is 'amazed' an international gang of 'evil' online scammers who allegedly targeted her son have finally been arrested in West Africa following a three-year manhunt.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Pauline Stuart, 56, also urged other parents to be vigilant so a similar tragedy does not befall their own children.
Authorities have said the gang targeted 'thousands' of people - including minors - in the U.S. Canada and Europe.
Stuart's high school senior son, Ryan Last, 17, was 'excited for life' but took his own life in February 2022 after sending intimate photos of himself to someone online posing as a 20-year-old woman.
The contact, however, was allegedly a man in Côte d'Ivoire, aka the Ivory Coast, who repeatedly demanded money from the teen to keep the explicit photos offline.
The terrified straight-A student, who attended Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill, 22 miles south of San Jose, California, feared the photos would be leaked on the internet.
A few hours later, he took his own life at home while his parents were in another room.
'I'm amazed because it's been over three years and kind of you get to a point that you don't think anything's ever going to happen about it,' Stuart said of authorities who made the arrests.
'I knew that they were still working on it. I was just surprised that it finally did happen. But I shouldn't be, because all the people involved were truly touched by Ryan's story.'
The youngster's death prompted a huge international investigation which led to the arrest of ringleader Alfred Kassi.
He was arrested on April 29 - when it was discovered that he still had the menacing messages he allegedly sent to Last on his phone. Three other men were also arrested.
The probe was led by the San Jose Police Department, the FBI with assistance from Meta.
A May 9 statement by the Department of Justice read: 'Through a lengthy, coordinated investigation involving U.S. and Ivorian law enforcement, the evidence ultimately led law enforcement to identify Alfred Kassi, an Ivorian citizen living in Côte d'Ivoire, as the individual allegedly conducting the sextortion.
'On April 29, Kassi was arrested by Ivorian law enforcement.
'At the time of his arrest, Kassi allegedly still had the sextortion messages he sent to the 17-year-old victim in February 2022 on his phone.'
Three of Kassi's alleged accomplices were also arrested. Oumarou Ouedraogo was picked up for money laundering and two others, Moussa Diaby and Oumar Cisse, were arrested for 'sextortion crimes.'
Another accomplice, Jonathan Kassi - unrelated to Alfred Kassi - was convicted in a California court in 2023 and sentenced to 18 months in jail for his part in the scheme.
According to the DoJ, 'The government of Côte d'Ivoire does not extradite its own citizens, so these defendants will be prosecuted in their own country under Ivorian cybercrime statutes.'
Stuart said the arrests do not soothe away any of her immense pain.
'There's no closure,' she said. 'Yesterday was Mother's Day. There's always going to be a huge hole in there.'
She often gives talks about about her experience in order to warn other parents.
'Telling Ryan's story helps me survive,' she said. 'I hope people learn about it because even to this day, there are some who have never heard of of these scams.
'People say 'It could never happen to my family. My kid wouldn't do it."
'Well, we're the example that it could happen. We had parental controls on his phone. We were close to our kids, we spoke with them but it still affected our family.
'So people need to realize that this could happen to any kid, and my kid had a lot going for him.'
'He was a straight-A student. He was looking forward to going to college and experiencing new things.
'He was excited for life, and it still was able to happen to him.
'People should realize this could happen to any child out there, and we need to start talking to them before things could happen.
'So maybe if it does, they'll remember that it's okay - I can go talk to my mom, my dad, my friend, somebody about this.'
The heartless scammers who targeted her son are 'evil,' according to Stuart.
'They can do this all anonymously and they don't feel like they're hurting anybody because they haven't met that person or that family that has been devastated by it,' she said.
Stuart said the parental controls on her son's cell phone had blocked him from being able to wire cash abroad. Initially, he was told to send $5,000 but the scammers settled for $150 which was sent electronically to 'money mule' Jonathan Kassi, located in the U.S., using Zelle, and then he in turn forwarded it to his namesake in Africa.
Last would have turned 21 on April 14 had he still been alive.
Stuart and husband Hagen Last, 54, moved from San Jose to Oregon in order to be close to family and their college freshman son, Aidan, 19.
The brothers were 'very close,' she said. They attended Scouts together studied martial arts.
'We chose to go and be surrounded by family,' said Stuart of leaving California.
Stuart is still coming to terms with the grief.
'It's hard because there are always constant reminders of what I'm missing and milestones,' she explained.
She lamented that her son is 'not going to be able to have a family.'
'It's really, really hard,' she added.
'It was bittersweet moving because we moved away from a house that we have so many memories of.
'But you also you move away from those memories because they can be hard and overwhelming for you because everything you look at reminds you of him.'
She reveals that Elton John's classic Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was a favorite of Ryan's after he used it as a soundtrack for a school video project.
'Anytime I hear that song come on, it's hard,' she said. 'It will always tie him to me.'
Ryan's death is part of a growing 'sextortion' trend where scammers target young boys as the FBI reported more than 18,000 cases in 2021, with families losing more than $13 million.
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