The bizarre case of the woman accused of stalking Yankees GM Brian Cashman exploded into the tabloids last week and yesterday, the Daily News revealed that Louise Neathway (sometimes referred to as Louise Meanwell) claimed she was pregnant with the married Cashman's baby and had an abortion. Now the News' rival gets word from Neathway's mom about her apparent bluff. more ›

A caterer on Staten Island, who allegedly has ties to the Genovese crime family, was found guilty of threatening a rival for a high school cafeteria bid. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said, "This case demonstrates organized crime still conducts its business in its traditional way — by relying on threats and violence to intimidate hard-working individuals trying to make a legitimate living. Here, the defendant sought to use fear and intimidation to obtain business, rather than honest competition. Such efforts will always be met with the full force of the law." more ›

Michael "Mike the Butcher" Virtuoso, who owns old-school Williamsburg butcher shop Graham Ave Meats & Deli, has unexpectedly pleaded guilty to extortion charges thanks to his side business as a loanshark for the Bonanno mafia. more ›

A Greenwich, Connecticut-bred teenager currently residing with her family in an affluent suburb of Sydney, Australia was the victim of a terrifying extortion attempt yesterday afternoon when a masked intruder stormed into her home and strapped what he said was a bomb to her neck. After pinning a hand-written note to her chest with a list of explicit instructions and threats, he fled, leaving 18-year-old Madeleine Pulver to face a grueling 10-hour ordeal. more ›

It was recently reported that elderly members of the Queens Botanical Garden were furious over "extortion" that now requires them to pay $150 for gardening plots which had been free to use for the past 45 years. But according to QBG Executive Director Susan Lacerte, that's not quite the case. She tells us that the fee to use plots was actually $30 last year, and reiterates that it's just $50 if the seniors volunteer, which most of them already do. She writes: more ›

We thought it was bad enough that some cab drivers have been robbing sleeping passengers; it turns out, even if they didn't rob you, they may try to extort you, as one "Good Samaritan" taxi driver did recently. more ›

Dora the Explorer has long been creepily forgiving of the cruel, crass world around her; no matter what Swiper does, she never loses her temper! It was inevitable that she'd lash out eventually, and so it has come to pass that the former voice of Dora is suing her parent company for exploitation. She's not only suing—she's allegedly holding them for ransom, with a deadline and all. "It's an attempted shakedown," a Nickelodeon source told the Post. more ›

Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch national charged with the murder of Stephany Flores in Peru, is hoping to earn some cash while being held at Castro Castro prison. He is attempting to sell an exclusive, on-camera interview to any TV station willing to pay him $1 million. So far, no one has taken him up on the offer. His publicity attempt comes a day after a federal grand jury filed an indictment on him for a scheme to extort $250,000 from Natalee Holloway's family to reveal her location. more ›

The news producer who pleaded guilty to trying to blackmail David Letterman for $2 million was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 1,000 hours of community service today. According to the Daily News, "To wile away the months, Halderman brought along a Bible and a thriller by Stieg Larsson called 'The Girl Who Played With Fire.'" His lawyer Gerald Shargel said, "He's been to every hot spot in the world, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia. I think he can handle Rikers Island." more ›

After resigning last year when he was ensnared in the feds' big corruption take-down, ex-Hoboken mayor Peter Cammarano still proclaimed his innocence. Until today: The Star-Ledger reports, "The 32-year-old Democrat said he accepted illegal campaign contributions from an undercover informant posing as a developer trying to bribe public officials. Cammarano, the youngest mayor in Hoboken history, spent just three weeks in office before being arrested. He now faces 24 to 30 months in prison." Fun fact: Cammarano managed to earn $12,000 for his three weeks in office, thanks to unused vacation time. more ›

Lawyer Marc Bernstein pleaded guilty to grand larceny yesterday after stealing $2.2 million of his clients' cash. Prosecutors accused him of stealing escrow and settlement money from 16 medical malpractice and personal-injury clients between 2006 and 2009, according to Businessweek. His attorney claims Bernstein stole the money to pay off a woman who was threatening to have him disbarred for lying. The Daily News says Bernstein will be disbarred. more ›

Robert "Joe" Halderman pleaded guilty yesterday for his attempt to extort $2 million from David Letterman by way of revealing Letterman's many affairs. The former CBS News producer admitted his scheme to sell a movie treatment to the talk show host "was just a thinly-veiled threat to ruin Mr. Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money." more ›

Prepare to be shocked, readers: The feds have charged eight members of the Colombo crime family with extortion, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and embezzlement of union benefit funds in connection with construction at the World Trade Center site. Yes, in addition to a lack of progress at the site, there's mob activity. more ›

The former CBS News producer who was accused of trying to shake down talk show host David Letterman for $2 million is set to plead guilty, according to the Daily News and Post, which reports, "Robert Halderman, a '48 Hours' producer, is expected to be sentenced to six months in jail, as well as ordered to do 1000 hours of community service and serve four-and-a-half years probation, as part of the agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to second-degree larceny in Manhattan Supreme Court today." more ›

A new Vanity Fair article takes a deep look into the Letterman extortion scandal, and what it finds out is kind of weird. It turns out that 62-year-old Letterman has a certain "electricity" that drives many female staffers crazy. “It’s like a cult,” says one former insider "It’s like Jesus Christ saying, ‘Hey, let’s go to dinner!' You’re going to go, ‘Wow! He chose me!’" more ›

A rabbi known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his ability to raise campaign money for (mostly) Republican candidates was charged on Thursday with trying to extort $4 million from a Connecticut hedge fund. Rabbi Milton Balkany, who serves as the dean of the Bais Yaakov day school in Borough Park, allegedly dreamed up the scheme after becoming a "spiritual adviser" to a federal inmate who told him about a Connecticut hedge fund that had used inside information in stock trades. Prosecutors say Balkany told lawyers at the hedge fund that unless they handed over $4 million ($2 million of which would go to Bais Yaakov), he'd instruct the inmate to rat them out. But Balkany insists he's just being punished for doing a mitzvah! more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Councilman Larry Seabrook (D-Bronx) has reportedly been hit with a 13-count indictment on federal charges of money laundering, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail and wire fraud, extortion, and receiving an unlawful gratuity. Insiders told the Times that the Democrat—who represents Wakefield, Co-op City, Edenwald, Williamsbridge and Baychester—is suspected of helping a boiler company obtain city contracts. more ›

A judge has refused to throw out the criminal case against a TV producer who is accused of trying to blackmail David Letterman. Robert "Joe" Halderman, the former CBS News producer, had allegedly demanded $2 million from Letterman in exchange for keeping quiet about a film script that dramatized Letterman's affairs with staffers. A lawyer for Halderman had argued that "his client simply had valuable information and wanted to get paid for it." In ruling against Halderman, Justice Charles Solomon wrote, "Defendant argues that the statute is overbroad as it applies to him because he has a constitutionally protected right to write a book or screenplay about a public figure. Since the defendant is not being prosecuted for authoring either a book or a screenplay, his constitutional right to free speech is not been impacted." more ›

It's not bribery, it's just selling information! The lawyer of the man accused of shaking down David Letterman for $2 million claims, the Post reports, that "his client simply had valuable information and wanted to get paid for it - just as many of the women involved in the Woods sex scandal have been." In other words, does that mean Robert "Joe" Halderman, the former CBS News producer, wishes he had an affair with Tiger Woods instead? more ›

Oh those heady days of early October, when bike lane battles and doomsday MTA plans weren't even whispers in the ear. Suspected talk show host extortionist Robert "Joe" Halderman, who is tangled up in all sorts of shenanigans involving Late Night host David Letterman back in October, was in court yesterday, where it was revealed that he was an extremely paranoid dude: he feared that Letterman might cause him to lose his job, burn his house down, or even murder him. more ›

Robert Joe Halderman, the former CBS News producer accused of extorting David Letterman for $2 million, appeared in court today, as his lawyer asked the judge to drop charges. Why? Because, attorney Gerald Shargel claimed,“There was no extortion. There was a screenplay for sale. There was a commercial transaction. Nothing more.” more ›

Another day, another bunch of stories about talk show host David Letterman's extortion scandal. In one corner, we have the Post's revelation that Letterman brought his assistant/lover on a trip with his girlfriend (later wife) and son; in the other, the Daily News says the alleged extortionist thought Letterman enticed his female staffers with "perks." more ›

Nearly a week after admitting that he was the target in a $2 million extortion plot—and admitting he had sex with female staffers of the Late Show—David Letterman refrained from joking about the scandal last night. The Post noted, "Instead, he joked that it’s more fun to drive a jeep into a tree than read Sarah Palin’s new memoir." more ›

Though David Letterman apologized for the tabloid media frenzy (related to a $2 million extortion attempt) that's now greeting his staffers on Monday night, he might need to apologize to his staffers' families too—the Post went to the New Hampshire assisted living facility to ask the 90-year-old grandmother of a Late Show staffer/alleged Letterman lover some questions! Stephanie Birkitt's grandmother Irene Boyle said that Letterman "and Stephanie have always had a good relationship. They joked and kidded around... They were just good friends... She worked for Dave for 11 years. She said she never had sex with him." more ›

Last night, David Letterman apologized to his wife and Late Show staffers for spilling the beans on having sex with staffers. Last week, Letterman disclosed details about a $2 million extortion attempt—the suspect was threatening to reveal details about these affairs—probably because details would be sought after the Manhattan DA's office announced charges anyway. He said, "It did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having had sex with women who worked on this show, that then what would happen is reporters and newspaper people and radio and TV would start hounding the staff and saying, ‘What do you say, are you, and this and that.’" more ›

In his first live show since telling America that he was being extorted for $2 million—over details about his sexual relationship with staffers—David Letterman was greeted by an enthusiastic audience and said, "Did your, did your weekend just fly by?... I'll be honest with you, right now I'd give anything to be hiking in the Appalachian Mountains." His monologue (video below) was jokey, noting how he was very close to being impeached, raking his hate mail over the weekend and how usually he's shaken down for money by relatives, but at the desk he later apologized to his wife and his staff. more ›

The lawyer for the man accused of trying to shake down David Letterman for $2 million—in order not to divulge Letterman's history of relationships with female staffers—hit the morning talk shows to slam the Late Show host: "He’s a master at manipulating audiences, that’s what he does for a living... The public should not rush to judgment. The public should not simply take the word of David Letterman.” more ›

Now that David Letterman has told American about having sexual relationships with female staffers—because a 48 Hours news producer was allegedly trying to extort him for $2 million—details about those staffers and trysts continue to come out of the woodwork. In fact, one former intern told TMZ, "I was madly in love with him at the time. I would have married him. He was hilarious." more ›

Now the dirty laundry of Robert "Joe" Halderman, the 48 Hours news producer who is accused of trying to shake down David Letterman for $2 million, is being spilled. While Halderman allegedly threatened to expose Letterman's various sexual relationships with staffers, a former co-worker told the Daily News that Halderman "was a charmer and he was very flirty...But he was definitely a troublemaker, the kind of man [that] women go after because he's trouble." more ›

Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau revealed details of the charges against the CBS producer accused of extorting David Letterman for $2 million—and added, "The message of this indictment should be clear. New York City will not tolerate the coercion or extortion of anyone, be the victim rich or poor, famous or anonymous." That's a good policy! more ›