By Ted Clifford
The State
RIDGEVILLE, S.C. — State officials have arrested three people who are accused of participating in a sextortion scheme run from inside of one of South Carolina’s prisons.
On Friday, the South Carolina Department of Corrections announced the arrests made by the department’s Inspector General for the three’s role in a “sprawling” scheme that netted $146,000 from five victims in 2022. The scheme was orchestrated by an inmate at the Lieber Correction Institution, located in Ridgeville, according to the department. The alleged ringleader isn’t named in the warrants.
Three people, Tori Michelle Boiter, 53, of Greenville; Ashely Paige Scates, 48, of Laurens; and Seth Daniel Shurburtt, 36, of Pelzer have been charged for their alleged roles in the scheme. The three face charges including bank fraud, criminal conspiracy, money laundering and violations of the Computer Crimes Act.
Scates and Shurburtt were arrested Dec. 11 . Boiter was arrested the following day. Bond has been set for all three defendants, according to court records.
None of the three appear to have been charged under South Carolina’s new charge of sexual extortion, a crime that carries up to a 20 year prison sentence. The law, passed after a York County lawmaker’s son died by suicide after falling victim to a sextortion scheme, made it a felony offense to blackmail someone after luring them to send sexually explicit photos of themselves via text or social media.
Charges against the inmate at the center of the scheme have not been served, according to a statement from the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
In its statement, the corrections department alleged the unnamed inmate used a contraband cellphone smuggled into the prison to create online dating profiles. The inmate then began communicating with victims and exchanging sexual images.
Once compromising material had been shared, the inmate impersonated a parent, lawyer or private investigator, saying the victim had been communicating with a minor, according to the corrections department. He would then threatened the victims with legal consequences and criminal charges if they refused to make large payments to him.
Warrants show Boiter, Scates and Schurburtt in 2022 received over a dozen payments — ranging from a few thousand dollars to up to over $20,000. Victims often transferred money from online banking apps like Zelle and then deposit it into bank accounts.
One warrant describes how between April 1 and July 31, 2022, Scates allegedly deposited $118,467 extorted from the victims into her account at the CPM Federal Credit Union, according to the warrants.
Warrants also describe how the group used fake documents to perpetrate their scheme. One warrant alleged Boiter signed a fake “non-disclosure agreement” that was given to an extortion victim and used the name Bethey Hawley.
In another instance, Schurburtt allegedly accepted $2,878.71 via PayPal from an extortion victim on June 1, 2021. Texts obtained by investigators showed the victim believed he was sending the money to father of a minor he thought he had been communicating with.
Repeat of sextortion scam on SC military members
The alleged scheme was a pared down repeat of a widespread sextortion scam run by South Carolina inmates that targeted members of the military. Roughly 440 members of the military in the mid-2010s were ensnared in a scheme where inmates using contraband cellphones set up dating profiles before pretending to be minors and demanding payment.
Fifteen people, including five inmates, were charged in 2018 for their role in the scheme, which saw $560,000 paid to the blackmailers.
“The public will not be safe until state prison systems can stop inmates from using illegal cellphones to commit crimes,” SCDC Director Bryan Stirling said in a statement issued Friday. “SCDC will not tolerate this illegal behavior and is taking enormous steps to identify and deactivate these phones.”
Since the 2018 case, the South Carolina Department of Corrections has waged a war on contraband cellphones.
In July, the department began testing out a long-anticipated program to disable targeted cell phones in state prisons. While federal prisons can “jam” cell signals, state entities are forbidden by federal law from using a similar technology. But the new program allows corrections officials to identify cell phone signals inside of prison and then disable specific, unauthorized devices with the assistance of telecom carriers.
Because the technology targets the device itself, inmates can’t get around the system by changing carriers.
This high-tech solution has also been paired with statewide contraband sweeps to prevent employees from bringing in phones and the installation of netting to prevent phones from being thrown over prison walls or even delivered by drone.
Charges in sextortion scam
The charges for the three defendants arrested this week are listed below:
Tori Michelle Boiter
- Five counts of bank fraud
- Securities fraud related to money laundering
- Financial transaction card fraud more than $1,000
- Two counts of forgery
- Breach of trust
- Criminal conspiracy
- Violation of the Computer Crime Act
- Possession of methamphetamines
Ashley Paige Scates
- Four counts of bank fraud
- Three counts of breach of trust
- Securities fraud related to money laundering
- Financial transaction card fraud more than $1,000
- Criminal conspiracy
- Violation of the Computer Crimes Act
Seth Daniel Shurburtt
- Six counts of bank fraud
- Securities fraud related to money laundering
- Violation of the Computer Crimes Act
- Three counts of breach of trust
- Financial transaction card fraud more than $1,000
- Criminal conspiracy
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