Oprah Winfrey targeted in extortion scheme: report

An Atlanta man has been charged with trying to extort $1.5 million from Oprah Winfrey over tapes of telephone calls between him and a Winfrey employee that he said would embarrass the popular U.S. talk show host, according to court documents and media reports on Saturday.

Keifer Bonvillain is charged in federal court trying to extort money by threatening to injure a person's reputation, according to court documents.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago does not identify Winfrey, but refers to an "Individual A," as "a public figure and the owner of a Chicago-based company."

he Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune on Saturday identified Individual A as Winfrey -- whose Harpo Studios is based in Chicago. They cited unidentified sources close to the investigation.

Neither Winfrey, who was in South Africa opening a $40 million school for girls she had paid for, nor her press representatives could be reached immediately for comment.

According to the complaint, filed on December 14, Bonvillain first wrote to his target in October and said an employee was saying "awful things" about the individual.

Bonvillain then wrote to the person's business on November 17 and said he had tapes of conversations with the employee that would be embarrassing, according to the complaint. The court documents did not disclose the content of the tapes.
Source: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-01-06T212840Z_01_N06270809_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-OPRAH.xml&src=rss