All posts tagged: extortion

Lobbyist for Man Pardoned by Trump in Plea Talks on Extortion Charges

Lobbyist for Man Pardoned by Trump in Plea Talks on Extortion Charges

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) – A lobbyist who helped a ⁠nursing ⁠home owner convicted of tax fraud ⁠secure a pardon from President Donald Trump is in talks with prosecutors ​over a potential plea agreement to resolve extortion charges, court records showed.  Attorney Joshua Nass, founder of lobbying firm Merkava ‌Strategies, was arrested on March 13 ‌on charges of hiring someone to intimidate a former client and his son into paying him $500,000. ⁠Court papers do ⁠not identify the former client, but two people familiar with the matter ​said it was Joseph Schwartz, the nursing home owner who received the pardon last year.  In a court filing on Monday night, Nass’ lawyers asked Brooklyn-based U.S. Magistrate Judge James Cho to push the deadline for prosecutors to secure ​an indictment to April 27 from April 13 as talks continue. “This additional time is necessary to afford ⁠the parties ⁠time to confer regarding ⁠a potential resolution ​of the case,” Nass’ defense lawyers wrote, adding that prosecutors consented to the request.   Nass has not ​entered a plea. His lawyers …

Former Toronto police officer and Barrie man charged in Ontario police probe gambling extortion ring

Former Toronto police officer and Barrie man charged in Ontario police probe gambling extortion ring

Published by skeptic

The York Regional Police Organized Enforcement Bureau in Ontario, working alongside the South Simcoe Police Service, has charged a former Toronto police officer and another suspect in connection with an ongoing gambling extortion investigation involving organized crime. According to a press release from the York Regional Police, police searched a residence in Toronto, which led to Thomas Phippard being charged in this case on Monday (January 12). The 47-year-old was charged with three counts of extortion. The following day, police executed a search warrant at a property in Barrie, in which a 55-year-old named John Madeley was charged with several offences, including breach of trust, possession of a firearm at an unauthorized place and two counts of possession of prohibited devices. Even more remarkable was the fact that Madeley was a former Toronto Police officer. Organized crime group was responsible for illegal gaming and betting activities Between January 2024 and October 2025, both Phippard and Madeley were working with an organized crime group that was responsible for illegal gambling and betting activities. The victims placed …

Gang leader sentenced to 9 years after running illegal gambling and extortion schemes

Gang leader sentenced to 9 years after running illegal gambling and extortion schemes

Published by skeptic

A gang leader has been sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for orchestrating a 2023 gambling operation and heading up a list of extortion schemes. The man identified as Luis Ramirez, head of the Los Angeles Riverside County-based street gang, has been found to have organized the illegal activity while already incarcerated on separate charges. Gang leader sentenced for extortion plot U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., who ordered that Ramirez’s federal term run consecutively to his existing life sentence in California state prison, determined that he broke multiple laws whilst incarcerated. Ramirez allegedly continued to organize and control the Westside Riva (WSR), a Jurupa Valley-based street gang, and carried out the acts as part of a wider swathe of violence and criminal intimidation. Leader of Inland Empire street gang sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for ordering 2023 kidnapping in Riverside https://t.co/w2mxcOy9pi — US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) January 13, 2026 This included, says the Department of Justice (DoJ) publication, that the WSR under his command “conducted, managed, and supervised an illegal gambling …

Google moonshot spinout SandboxAQ claims an ex-exec is attempting ‘extortion’

Google moonshot spinout SandboxAQ claims an ex-exec is attempting ‘extortion’

Published by skeptic

A former SandboxAQ executive filed a wrongful termination suit last month filled with such scandalous allegations against the company’s famed CEO, Jack Hidary, that plaintiff himself redacted the most salacious details.  On Friday, the company’s lawyers filed a blistering response, calling the former employee a “serial liar” and stating his lawsuit “asserts false claims for improper and extortionate purposes.” Even the visible portions of the lawsuit — which TechCrunch has obtained — contain eyebrow-raising allegations, should a court find them valid. (A copy of the lawsuit is available here.) The case offers a rare inside look at how employee lawsuits can become a public airing of dirty laundry from otherwise opaque internal happenings, thanks to the ubiquitous private arbitration clauses in Silicon Valley employee agreements. The suit was filed by Robert Bender in mid-December. Bender worked as Chief of Staff to Hidary from August 2024 through July 2025, the complaint states. He contends in his suit that he was wrongfully terminated after raising concerns about a number of alleged incidents, some of which, he said, involved …

French ex-spy chief handed suspended jail sentence in attempted extortion case

French ex-spy chief handed suspended jail sentence in attempted extortion case

Published by Sam Flores

French diplomat and former head of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) Bernard Bajolet arrives on the opening day of his trial for complicity in attempted extortion at the court of Bobigny, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris on November 6, 2025. ALAIN JOCARD / AFP A former head of France’s foreign intelligence agency was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence Thursday, January 8, for attempted extortion worth millions of euros. Bernard Bajolet, who led France’s Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) from 2013 to 2017, was found to have orchestrated an attempt to coerce €15 million ($17.5 million) out of a businessman embroiled in a financial dispute with the service. His conviction brings to a close a 10-year-long investigation full of legal twists and turns, with the trial prompting scrutiny into the workings of the entire foreign intelligence service the 76-year-old once commanded. On March 12, 2016, French-Swiss dual national Alain Dumenil, who was involved in financial disputes with the DGSE worth millions of euros, was stopped by border police at Paris’s biggest airport …