Extortion

A man allegedly associated with Israeli organized crime pleaded guilty to extorting a Beverly Hills Lamborghini dealer, cutting short a trial that had touched on a Tel Aviv bank embezzlement and the gray market in luxury cars. Hai Waknine was listening to testimony Tuesday from his codefendant, Gabriel Harroch, in federal court in Los Angeles when his attorneys sent Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas P. Sleisenger a note proposing a plea.

A military jury sentenced a Coast Guard cadet to six months in prison and kicked him out of the service Wednesday for extorting sexual favors from a classmate. Cadet Webster M. Smith, the first student court-martialed in the academy's 130-year history, was acquitted of rape but had faced up to five years and seven months for extortion, sodomy, indecent assault and other charges.

A lawyer for a woman who accused Irish dance entertainer Michael Flatley of rape committed extortion when he threatened to go public with the allegation unless the "Riverdance" star paid him at least $1 million, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday. "That the threats were couched in legalese does not disguise their essential character as extortion," Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the court. The ruling permits Flatley to pursue a lawsuit against former Illinois lawyer D.

Four Iranian brothers jailed more than three years as security threats and accused of supporting terrorists sued former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller III and other officials Monday, charging that the government held them illegally as punishment for refusing to work as informants. The suit, filed in U.S.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said Wednesday that he has filed misdemeanor criminal charges of attempted extortion, unlawful taking of a vehicle, vehicle tampering and operating without a required permit against Heavy Metal Transport Inc., doing business as MVP Tow Service. The company is accused of towing vehicles without the proper authority and asking for money from motorists who returned to find their vehicles hooked up to tow trucks.

When 40 Santa Ana residents return in a caravan of vehicles this month to La Presa, a small village in Michoacan Mexico, they will come with presents for relatives and to dedicate a new town plaza partially paid for with money they earned in California. But that doesn't mean they will get the red-carpet treatment.

A judge set bail at $500,000 Thursday for a chauffeur for Yoko Ono after a prosecutor said he tried to extort $2 million from John Lennon's widow and "had people on standby waiting to kill" her. Koral Karsan, 50, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on a first-degree attempted grand larceny charge. His lawyer, Patrick Kevin Brosnahan, said his client was not guilty and "will vigorously dispute these charges."

A stock analyst admitted in federal court in St. Louis on Thursday that he threatened to damage the reputation and stock of CKE Restaurants Inc. if the Carpinteria, Calif., company didn't hire him as a consultant for $300,000. C. Clive Munro, 54, pleaded guilty to committing interstate threats. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop felony charges of extortion, wire fraud and securities fraud. Munro, arrested in October at his Cheyenne, Wyo.

Melissa LaGrone traveled by bus to Ohio last March seeking treatment for a serious lung ailment and failing vision at a Cleveland clinic specializing in her condition. But her belongings didn't make the trip. LaGrone's property -- including such crucial items as her winter clothes, bed, breathing machine and Braille reader -- remained locked in the Southern California warehouse of the moving company she had hired, the former social worker said.

Federal agents arrested two customs agents on suspicion of trying to extort $500 from a merchant in exchange for waiving taxes on goods being brought from the United States into Mexico, officials announced. Detained were Enrique Edu Villagomez and Raul Lazaro Trujillo, former chief and inspector, respectively, for Mexico's customs department in the northern border city of Mexicali.