Federal authorities have arrested actor Vivek Shah in an extortion scandal, where in the actor threatened co-founder of Miramax Films Harvey Weinstein and a few other multimillionaires for huge amounts of money.
The 25-year-old aspiring actor allegedly threatened the film-producer and his family for around $4 million. He supposedly sent letters to the "Shakespeare in Love" producer making threats and demanding that money be wired to him to an oversea bank. In addition to Weinstein, Shah is also being accused of sending threats to four other tycoons, including an oil executive, NHL team, and a coal mogul.
Joshua Mehall, the inspector, told ABC News, "Each of these letters contained a threat to kill named members of the recipient's family unless a large sum of money was wired to an offshore bank account."
He was arrested on August 1 while visiting his family in Chicago, but his family says that the aspiring actor was forced into the situation by a third party. Shah's father told NY Post it was "out of character...He is a good person...he was pressured by someone, and they threatened they would kill Vivek."
Christopher Cline, the multi-billionaire coal-mining entrepreneur, was also one of the people who received threats from the actor. According to reports, Celine was threatened and asked to send Shah $13 million. Investigator Mehall told ABC News that the letter had "wiring instructions for a bank in Cyprus," and that if he did not comply "several named members of his family" would be killed.
Shah is currently being held in a transit in West Virginia. He is being charged on two counts of interference in commerce and two counts of making threats all related to extortation. If convicted of the he can face up to 20 years.
Shah played a small role in "Bones," and minor roles in movies like "The Dark Knight" and "Outsourced."
