Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein Targeted In Extortion Plot By Struggling Actor
Aug. 22 2012, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
By Breaking Celebrity News Staff
A 25-year-old actor is in federal custody without bail in West Virginia, Breaking Celebrity News has learned, after authorities said he tried to extort $4 million from ace movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Vivek Shah, an Akron, Ohio native living in West Hollywood, California, was arrested August 10 at his parents' Chicago-area home, accused of sending threatening letters to Weinstein and four other wealthy businessmen, officials said.
"Each of these letters contained a threat to kill named members of the recipient's family," Postal Inspector Joshua Mehall said in court docs, "unless a large sum of money was wired to an offshore bank account."
Asked about the plot, the 60-year-old Weinstein, who won an Oscar for producing Shakespeare in Love, declined to comment. (He told the New York Daily News, “I’m with my kids right now -- goodbye.")