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2nd arrest in Tom Cruise extortion probe Posted: 28 Jul 2007 02:41 PM CDT More details on the second arrest by the LA Times 2nd arrest in Tom Cruise extortion probe FBI officials announced Friday that a second man has been arrested in connection with an alleged attempt to extort $1 million from actor Tom Cruise in exchange for returning thousands of stolen photographs of Cruise’s private wedding in November to actress Katie Holmes. The arrest of computer expert Marc Lewis Gittleman, 33, of Los Angeles came one day after authorities confirmed the arrest of David Hans Schmidt, 47, of Arizona for allegedly seeking money for the photographs from Cruise’s representatives. According to an FBI affidavit, Gittleman took possession of the pictures when he worked on a computer belonging to the wedding’s authorized photographer. Gittleman made a copy of the hard drive after discovering that it included some 7,600 photographs of the wedding, the affidavit states, and later contacted Schmidt through an Internet search to see what he could do with the photos. Schmidt, who is known to be a broker of celebrity photographs, contacted Cruise’s representatives in late May. He was arrested Tuesday after an undercover agent met with him and representatives of Cruise, allegedly to discuss payment for the photos, authorities said. Gittleman was taken into custody Thursday. Cruise’s attorney, Bert Fields, said in an interview that his client was in Germany filming a movie and had not been contacted directly in the alleged extortion. “What happened was this man contacted us with all these photographs and asked for a huge sum of money,” Fields said. “We turned it over to the FBI immediately … and did whatever they told us to do.” Fields said the actor “was not happy with the fact that these [wedding] photographs were being shopped around, because who ever took them stole them.” and AOL News: (…) The photographer, identified as Joshua Bobrove, reportedly had taken a damaged computer hard drive containing the wedding photos to Gittleman to employ his services as a data recovery expert. Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said. He contacted Schmidt after finding a Web site touting his abilities to broker celebrity photos. In the past two months, Schmidt had repeated contact with Cruise representatives and threatened to shop the photos around if he didn’t receive $1.25 million to $1.35 million, officials said. At one point, he allegedly e-mailed the actor’s representatives about 7,600 wedding photos as proof he had them. “He said that the client would turn to the black market and find a buyer for the photos,” said Peter Brust, a special agent in charge in the FBI’s Los Angeles office. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Schmidt or Gittleman had retained attorneys. Schmidt, who lives in Phoenix, was released on $100,000 bond. Schmidt, 47, was arrested after an undercover FBI agent attended a meeting in West Hollywood between Schmidt and Cruise’s representatives. Federal agents were led to Gittleman, 33, by a license plate number they discovered on a slip of paper in Schmidt’s car. (…) Schmidt was charged with sending communications for purposes of extortion, the criminal complaint said. Gittleman was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion. If convicted, Schmidt faces as many as two years in prison and Gittleman as many as five years. A message left with Cruise’s publicist was not immediately returned.

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