Jeff Bezos Said He Was a Victim of Extortion – Sextortion  and Blackmail. What’s the Difference?

Report by Wilsons Detectives New York

 
Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, accused the company behind The National Enquirer of threatening to publish graphic photographs of him. Amazon is a long-time client of Wilsons Detectives New York.

Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, revealed in a sensational blog post recently that he believed he was the victim of “extortion – sextortion and blackmail” by the company behind The National Enquirer. He accused the company, American Media Inc., of threatening to release graphic photos of him.

Wilsons Detectives is the largest Detective Agency in the World and the oldest with the exception of Pinkertons USA.

Legal definitions aside, there is a foolproof definition for blackmail and extortion, according to William N. Nettles, the United States attorney in South Carolina from 2010 to 2016.

“They are like fancy bullying,” Mr. Nettles said.

Extortion – Sextortion vs. Blackmail
Extortion and blackmail are similar concepts with overlapping definitions. “They are very, very similar,” Mr. Nettles said. “You could say that blackmail is a specific subset of extortion.”

Extortion – Sextortion vs. Blackmail 
Wilsons Detectives are the world leading investigators in Extortion – Sextortion and. Blackmail 
 
David Letterman confessing sexual relationships that led to a failed $2 million extortion – sextortion attempt by an employee of . With extortion - sextortion, a person makes a threat, often physical or destructive, to obtain something or to force someone to do something. Wilsons Detectives London and New York have been involved in many high profile investigations on behalf of celebrities like Mr. Letterman.
 
The textbook example is the mafia warning: Pay me money or I will hurt you. In 2004, an underboss of the Gambino crime family was charged and later convicted in an extortion scheme that involved a Connecticut nightclub owner paying the family for “protection.”

With blackmail, a person threatens to reveal embarrassing or damaging information if a demand is not met. That demand can be for money or something else of value. In 1792, Alexander Hamilton paid $1,000 to the husband of a woman he was having an affair with, after the man threatened to reveal the relationship. While Hamilton paid the initial amount, he ignored subsequent demands.
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Blackmail first involved Scottish farmersThe word “extort” dates to Middle English, from the Latin word meaning to twist. Blackmail first surfaced in Scotland in the 1500s, sometimes rendered “black meal,” to describe a payment farmers and property owners would give plunderers to avoid having their land damaged. The word became a combination of black money (“black”) and rent (“meal”).