Two men were charged with plotting to extort more than US$1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor's stolen wedding photographs, federal authorities announced.
David Hans Schmidt, known for brokering deals involving compromising celebrity photos and videos, was charged with sending communications for purposes of extortion, according to a criminal complaint.
Marc Lewis Gittleman, who authorities say helped recover photos from a computer hard drive, was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.
Federal authorities arrested Schmidt, 47, on Tuesday and Gittleman, 33, on Thursday night, officials said on Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether Schmidt or Gittleman had retained attorneys. Schmidt, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, was released on US$100,000 bail. If convicted, Schmidt faces up to two years in prison and Gittleman up to five years.
A message left with Cruise's publicist was not immediately returned.
The plot began after Gittleman obtained photos of the actor's Italian wedding last year to actress Katie Holmes from the official photographer, a criminal complaint said.
HARD DRIVE
The photographer, identified as Joshua Bobrove, had reportedly taken a damaged computer hard drive containing the wedding photos to Gittleman to employ his services as a data recovery expert.
Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said. He contacted Schmidt after finding a Web site touting his abilities to broker celebrity photos.
In the last two months, Schmidt had repeated contact with Cruise representatives and threatened to shop the photos around if he did not receive between US$1.25 million and US$1.35 million, officials said. He claimed there were about 7,600 wedding photos, and at one point e-mailed the actor's representatives 13 images as proof he had them.
`BLACK MARKET'
"He said that the client would turn to the black market and find a buyer for the photos," said Peter Brust, a special agent in charge in the FBI's Los Angeles office.
Schmidt was arrested after an undercover FBI agent attended a meeting in West Hollywood between Schmidt and Cruise's representatives. Federal agents were led to Gittleman by a license plate number they discovered on a slip of paper in Schmidt's car.
PREVIOUS SCHEMES
Schmidt has also tried to auction off Paris Hilton's diaries, along with photos of her in various stages of undress and other personal items that had been locked away in a Los Angeles-area storage locker until a few months ago.
Over the years, Schmidt has claimed to have brokered deals to sell a sex video of Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on Saved by the Bell and a video of ice skater Tonya Harding's wedding night, according to published reports. He also claimed to have obtained topless shots of rescued US Army POW Jessica Lynch.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of