"Sultan of Sleaze" Arrested for Trying to Extort Money from Tom Cruise

"Sultan of Sleaze" Arrested for Trying to Extort Money from Tom Cruise
Blackmailer to the stars, David Hans Schmidt, also widely known as the "Sultan of Sleaze," has been arrested this week in regards to the role he played during an alleged attempt at extorting Tom Cruise. Schmidt is reported to have contacted Cruise, offering him the opportunity to purchase private photos of his wedding to Katie Holmes, which were originally stolen from the actor, hoping to earn over one million dollars for the pictures. The Smoking Gun reports:

Schmidt was arraigned yesterday on the felony charge and bond was set at $100,000. In an e-mail, Thom Mrozek, a U.S. Attorney's spokesman, said that Schmidt was arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint that remains sealed, "so I cannot comment about the case."
What an idiot. I mean, I get the attempt to blackmail celebs with threatening to make their sex-tapes public because clearly, there is a possibility that they'd want to pay the money to keep it secret. But, to try and do the same thing with wedding pictures is just stupid. Was Schmidt going to threaten to publish the pictures? Big deal. It's a wedding. Granted, it is a space wedding from Mars, but at the end of the day, I get the feeling this guy's not dealing with a full deck.
Published 7/27/07 by


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