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.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not