NY- A senior executive of a Fortune 500 company was the target of a six-figure extortion plot hatched by a woman who first met the businessman online and then later threatened to go public with details of his extramarital affairs.
According to an FBI agent, the New York executive acknowledged that on “multiple occasions” he trolled for women on Craigslist and a second site “devoted to bringing together attractive women and wealthy men who were seeking romantic relationships.”
It was during the man’s time on Craigslist earlier this year that he met Jessica Wolcott, [pictured] a 22-year-old who pleaded guilty last week to extorting $125,000 from the executive. According to a detailed U.S. District Court complaint, Wolcott began sending the executive threatening e-mails in August, warning that unless he paid $125,000, she would tell his wife that “you’ve been looking for a fill in for her…After all these years of being married this is how you repay your vows? You are disgusting.”
Using the alias “cheater_eater,” Wolcott wrote in an August 11 e-mail that after she went public with her allegations, the executive would “become just another hated Peter Cook,” a reference to Christie Brinkley’s estranged husband, who reportedly cheated on the model with a 19-year-old woman. The threats also contained claims that the businessman abused his company’s plane, used his office computer to “solicit sex online for money,” and threw “your money out to some young girl…who needs it because you are in a better position and use it to get sex?”
In her correspondence, Wolcott acknowledged that she was engaged in extortion, but noted that, unless he paid up, her target faced losing his job, wife, family, and “all that nice cushy stock.” At the FBI’s direction, the businessman sent a total of $125,000 to an account maintained by “cheater eater” with E-Gold, an online service that facilitates the anonymous exchange of money. When the executive was slow in following up with more money after an initial $20,000 payment, “cheater_eater” wrote in an August 30 e-mail, “Here’s to hoping your life is still a living hell, and worrying everyday that your name will be in the news or on a TV movie for what you’ve done to your wife and the resources you’ve used as CEO for your job.”
Investigators learned the identity of “cheater eater” when E-Gold officials provided a phone number and AOL e-mail address that were included in registration records for two E-Gold accounts controlled by Wolcott. When FBI agent Milan Patel asked the executive if he knew Wolcott, the man admitted meeting her on Craigslist in early-2006 and “exchanging numerous e-mails and photographs.”
The pair then met in person at a Westchester County bar, where Wolcott said she asked for money to “pay certain debts.” After the face-to-face meeting, the executive wired about $30,000 into one of Wolcott’s bank account (the complaint does not specify why the executive gave Wolcott the money). In a TSG interview, Wolcott denied having a “relationship” with the man, instead obliquely referring to it as a “situation.” Asked why he gave her the original $30,000, Wolcott said, “You would have to call and ask him.”
It seems that Wolcott used some of the money ($9200) to buy a used car on eBay. She was the winning bidder in an April auction for a 2001 Saab convertible coupe, which she drove to New York from California, where the seller lived, according to eBay records. Susanne Brody, Wolcott’s lawyer, described her client as a “young girl who has not had an easy life,” adding, “I think the real question is why a corporate executive with a wife and beautiful kids is online trying to meet young girls.” Wolcott, who is free on bail, is scheduled to be sentenced in February on a felony count of interstate transmission of threats. As part of her plea, Wolcott has to forfeit the $125,000 in shakedown payments and an Apple laptop computer.