Vivek Shah was sentenced to over seven years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted of orchestrating a multi-million-dollar extortion scheme that included threatening to kill family members of seven victims.
Shah sent letters threatening specific family members of the victims by name, according to the FBI, and “used language carefully designed to persuade his targets that his threats were serious.” He also created multiple false identities for his work.
Shah’s victims included movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, and coal executive Chris Cline. He demanded more than $4 million from Weinstein, $16 million from Lefkofsky, and $13 million from Cline.
He also threatened oil and gas billionaire Terry Pegula, from whom he demanded $34 million; Playtone film company co-owner Gary Goetzman, from whom he demanded $9.6 million; Ryan Kavanaugh, founder of Relativity Media, from whom Shah demanded $11.3 million; and Dannine Avara, daughter of a prominent Texas oil-industry executive, from whom Shah demanded $35 million.
In total, he sought more than $122 million.
“Imagine how terrifying it would be to open the mail and find a threat to kill your spouse or your children,” said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin in a statement. “This defendant carried out a carefully planned scheme designed to frighten his victims out of more than $120 million. It was an extraordinarily brazen crime, and I’m pleased, for the victims’ sakes, that we were able to put a stop to it so quickly.”
Shah was arrested on August 10, 2012 in Illinois.
