‘Sextortion’ Cases against CEOs, Celebs On the Rise
According to news sources, some wealthy executives, sports stars and Hollywood celebrities are increasingly turning to lawyers to help them battle “sextortion” plots in which young women with whom they’ve had sex blackmail them for tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for their silence.
“There’s been a significant increase over the last 20 years, but in the last five or six years it seems to have exploded,” says celebrity lawyer Blair Berk of the Los Angeles-based firm Tarlow & Berk, PC.
“Typically it’s clear there’s been no wrongdoing [by the man with money]. “It’s a clear red flag when part of the extortion is the threat to go to law enforcement, but they say they’ve chosen not to.”
The article goes on to say that Jeremy Saland, a former Manhattan prosecutor, told Insider that he recently represented a young New York-based CEO who recently met a woman on the “sugar-daddy” site Seeking Arrangements. The CEO had spent some $40,000 showering the young woman, who assured him that she was of legal age when they met, with gifts.
After they broke up, however, she revealed that she was, in fact, under age and threatened to name the man on her social media accounts.
“I’m going to blow up you and your business,” she texted him.
The young woman threatened to go public unless the CEO, who didn’t even know the woman’s real name, paid up.
“If you can’t get me money, I’m going to f–k up your whole company,” the woman texted him.
“It’s always the same thing: ‘Pay me, or I’m going to blow up you, or your marriage, or your business’,” Saland said.
He added: “It’s always, always a crime.”
Now the plot thickens as the investigations part comes in. The story continues that the CEO paid Saland and his partner, private investigator and ex-NYPD detective Herman Weisberg, tens of thousands of dollars to gather information on the woman and “turn the tables” by surveilling her, gathering incriminating evidence and issuing a cease-and-desist letter.
Saland and Weisberg discovered that the young woman was suffering from drug addiction and was living with a man she called her “manager.” They threatened to call the police on her and the “manager,” which prompted them to back down from their “sextortion” plot.
Shawn Holley, a Los Angeles-based lawyer at the firm Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP, said that her clients are often asked to pony up seven-figure payouts.
“These are cases where I send my investigator out, and the accusation is not real — it’s a shakedown,” Holley, whose clientele includes the likes of Kim Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan, and Snoop Dogg, told Insider.
She said the best-case scenario is to negotiate an out-of-court settlement in the low five-figures.
Here we see business/personal interests and legal matters intersecting and sometimes going to court. And as we often see, investigations in cases like these can lead to BIG victories in the courtroom or more favorable settlements. We know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!
