A man has been charged with trying to extort $1.5 million from Oprah Winfrey by threatening to release recordings he claimed would hurt her reputation.
Keifer Bonvillain, 36, of suburban Atlanta was arrested Dec. 15, a day after a Winfrey representative, secretly working with the FBI, wired him $3,000, according to court records.
A criminal complaint identified Winfrey only as Individual A, “a public figure and the owner of a Chicago-based company.” A knowledgeable source confirmed that Winfrey’s company, Harpo Studios, was the target of the extortion bid, the Tribune reported.
Bonvillain first e-mailed Winfrey in mid-October and then wrote a letter in November to Harpo about recorded conversations with an unnamed employee of Winfrey’s that would “not destroy but hurt” her reputation, according to the charges. The FBI then secretly recorded conversations between Bonvillain and Winfrey’s representative.
