Germany: Man convicted for Crawford extortion

[March 10, 2010]  BERLIN (AP) -- A German man has been convicted of blackmailing supermodel Cindy Crawford and been sentenced to two years in jail.

The court in the southern German town of Kirchheim unter Tech said Tuesday that Edis Kayalar was found guilty of extorting money from Crawford by threatening to release a photo showing Crawford's then 7-year-old daughter gagged and tied to a chair.

Kayalar turned himself in to German police in November 2009.

The German news agency ddp reports Crawford paid Kayalar $1,000 in 2009 and got a print of the photo. But the man came back asking for more and demanded a total of $100,000.

According to court papers, the girl says a former nanny took the picture as part of a "cops and robbers" game. Court documents say Kayalar stole the photo from the nanny.

[Associated Press]

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