Extortion

Authorities have detained a lawmaker and a paramedic in an alleged plot to extort money from actor John Travolta after the death of his son, police said. One of the suspects, ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne, was detained Friday. Earlier, several tabloids quoted him describing efforts to revive the celebrity's son, Jett, who died of a seizure this month at their family vacation home on Grand Bahama. Sen. Pleasant Bridgewater, an attorney from Grand Bahama, has been held for questioning since Thursday, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Marvin Dames told the Associated Press.

In 2005, leaders of a gang that sold crack and other drugs near MacArthur Park decided to add a new business venture: extorting the vendors who crowd the streets each evening, selling clothes, pirated DVDs and electronics to supplement a hardscrabble existence. The new effort led to a bloody consequence in September 2007, when an 18-year-old tasked with gunning down a defiant vendor accidentally shot to death a 3-week-old infant. The baby's death triggered a large-scale crackdown on the clique that culminated with a two-month trial that began in March.

David Paul Hammer was a prisoner at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester a few years ago when he bragged to a reporter for an alternative magazine that he had received at least $176,000 from 1,500 to 2,000 people he had duped into sending him money. "The trick is making them fall in love with you through letters and on the phone," Hammer told the Los Angeles-based magazine, the Advocate.

No taco stand was too small for Juan Arturo Vargas, alias "The Rat. " Every week, Vargas would shake down the businesses in Nicolas Romero, a working-class town an hour outside the Mexican capital. His take: anywhere from $25 to several hundred dollars. His leverage: Pay up, or your kids will get hurt. The Rat, police and prosecutors say, worked at the low end of a vast spectrum of the fastest-growing nonlethal criminal enterprise in Mexico: extortion. From mom-and-pop businesses to mid-size construction projects to some of Mexico's wealthiest citizens, almost every segment of the economy and society has been subjected to extortion schemes, authorities and records indicate.

A federal grand jury has indicted former Upland Mayor John Pomierski on extortion and bribery charges in an alleged scheme to extort money and campaign contributions from two businesses seeking city permits and other government approvals, officials announced Thursday. Pomierski, 56, using intermediaries, allegedly demanded $70,000 in payments from the owners of an Upland nightclub and a medical marijuana cooperative to help them obtain the required permits starting in 2007, according to the indictment.

An Orange County attorney who filed frivolous lawsuits against hundreds of small businesses in four counties has been jailed for ignoring a judge's order to stop. Harpreet Brar, 34, has made a career of suing in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties and collecting thousands of dollars in settlements from nail salons, liquor stores, real estate firms and video stores reluctant to fight the suits. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter J.

Last week, news of Jared Paul Stern's Page Six payola scandal rippled through New York's media circles with all the force of an 800-pound bomb. The story has all the stranger-than-fiction twists you could ask for: media figures accused of Mafia-like strong-arm tactics, boldfaced names in compromising positions -- and at its core is a terrific Los Angeles story, hinging on a Southland billionaire and with tantalizing implications about the entertainment industry's backroom dealings.

In his former life, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the action-thriller "Collateral Damage." Last week, he had only a bit role in the collateral damage inflicted by fellow Republicans in the state Senate. In the flick, victims included his wife and son. In the Senate, they include millions of battered wives, children, home-buyers, taxpayers. . . . On screen, Schwarzenegger played "Gordon Brewer," a Los Angeles firefighter who saw his family blown up by terrorists and was out for revenge.

Re "Firms Hit by ID Theft Find Way to Cash In on Victims," Aug 22 This is just a new twist on the old game of extortion. A gang or mob wants protection money to "insure" nothing bad happens to your house or business. Help can only come from our lawmakers, which means we're in real trouble. LEORA DEBOER Burbank

A Kentucky woman was convicted Thursday of demanding millions of dollars from Rick Pitino to keep secret their one-night stand in a restaurant, then claiming the Louisville basketball coach raped her after he reported the extortion. Karen Cunagin Sypher, 50, of Louisville, was found guilty of three counts of extortion, two counts of lying to the FBI and one count of retaliating against a witness. She stared at the ceiling as the verdict was read, while one of her sons wept openly.

Its name means "multitude," and it may be the biggest and most dangerous gang in the world, a thuggish army terrorizing Kenya with extortion rackets and gruesome punishments. Much about the organization called Mungiki is cloaked in myth and speculation, not least the estimate of sworn members -- some say 100,000, others say millions. Those claiming to be defectors, however, say the gang relies on strict discipline and tolerates no dissent. "If a member disobeys, they would cut that member's head off and put the head in public view at the place where they had a problem with the member," an alleged former member said in a statement to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.

The surprise visit to Alberto Ruiz's house was swift. Dress quickly, he was told. You're going to boot camp. His parents, worried about his drug use and habit of skipping school, had followed a friend's advice and called Kelvin McFarland. Ruiz's behavior had earned him a spot in McFarland's Family First Growth Camp in Pasadena, a place with a reputation for breaking gang-bangers and drug addicts and turning them into law-abiding teens. A former Marine who likes to be called "Sgt.

The long-running political corruption probe that saw 11 lawmakers, lobbyists and government staffers convicted in Alaska wound up this week, along with its stories of drunken hotel meetings, sleazy bribery come-ons, and sex-for-drug deals with underage girls. For the first time in years, Alaskans will wake up with no tawdry political drama to relish on the front page. One person who will be happy to see the end of it is Bruce Weyhrauch, a Juneau attorney and former member of the state House of Representatives who spent four years fighting extortion and bribery charges - only to see the legal footings of the case against him turn to quicksand and evaporate, without much fanfare, into a minor misdemeanor charge.

The caller identified himself as a member of the Rastrojos drug gang, then threatened to kill the businessman unless he paid $250 a month in protection money. Seeing no alternative and not trusting the police to intervene, the owner of a small lumber concern quietly paid the monthly "vaccinations," as bribes are called here, until early last month, when the gang called to demand a much steeper payoff. That was the last straw. He joined the ranks of 10,000 residents of Tumaco who marched through the steamy streets last month to demand that the government do something about the thugs in this lawless Pacific port city who, thwarted by successful eradication efforts to reduce coca cultivation, have gone hunting for other sources of revenue.

Public outrage continued to mount Monday in Mexico over last week's slaying by fire of 52 people in a popular casino as officials announced the arrest of five suspects. At least one of the detained men confessed that the attack in Monterrey was in response to the casino owners' refusal to pay protection money, said Rodrigo Medina, governor of the state of Nuevo Leon, where the affluent northern city is located. Medina said the suspects were working for the notorious Zetas drug cartel, which has been locked in a bloody battle with rival drug traffickers for control of northeastern Mexico.

The music producer and former gang member who accused Shaquille O'Neal of being behind an alleged kidnapping by a criminal street gang was classified as an "undesirable informant" by the LAPD in early 2010, according to internal police records reviewed by The Times. Robert Ross, who has testified that he was kidnapped, assaulted and robbed by members of the Main Street Crips gang after he claimed to have a sex tape of the basketball star, worked as an informant for a federal task force that was targeting the gang around 2006, according to a Los Angeles Police Department memo.

A Harvard University student on summer break was charged Friday with attempted extortion for demanding that a doctor who had tested positive for the AIDS virus give him $10,000 or face public exposure of his condition. John Michael Fountain, 21, pleaded not guilty Friday to attempted extortion and sending a threatening letter for extortion, Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah Kranze said. He faces as much as three years in prison if he is convicted, and is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail.

A Harvard University student on summer break was arrested Thursday in West Hollywood on extortion charges after he allegedly blackmailed a physician who had tested positive for the AIDS virus, authorities said. John Michael Fountain, 21, wrote the doctor demanding $10,000 in exchange for remaining silent about the physician's positive HIV test, deputies said. The physician contacted authorities, who arranged a drop with an envelope containing $10,000 in cash.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Prescription drug calls — The Food and Drug Administration is cautioning consumers about an extortion scam that involves criminals who pose as FDA agents. The criminals call victims and tell them they are under investigation by the FDA or another law enforcement agency for illegally buying prescription drugs from foreign pharmacies, the agency said. The callers tell victims that they'll face prosecution unless they pay a fine over the phone with a credit card, the FDA said.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided not to charge Mel Gibson's ex-girlfriend with extortion over the objections of the lead investigator, who concluded that a demand by her attorneys for $20 million in exchange for damaging recordings and photos merited prosecution, according to a document reviewed by The Times. In a letter sent Thursday to the prosecutor who declined to file charges, Det. Rodney Wagner of the Sheriff's Department stated his view that the department's six-month investigation turned up evidence of "implied threats" against the actor by Oksana Grigorieva and her lawyers.