AMC theaters CEO says he was the target of an elaborate blackmail scheme
AMC Theatres Chief Executive Adam Aron, who runs the world's largest movie theater chain, was targeted by a "elaborate" blackmail scheme, the businessman said Thursday on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Last year I became the victim of an elaborate criminal extortion by a third party who was unknown to me related to false allegations about my personal life,” Aron wrote in a lengthy post on X. “Rather than give in to blackmail, I personally engaged counsel and other professional advisors and reported the matter to law enforcement.”
According to Aron, a federal criminal investigation ultimately led to the arrest of the blackmailer, who Aron says was convicted of a felony and spent nearly a year in jail.
“Shortly after the extortionist's July 2023 sentencing, I informed AMC's Board of Directors which thoroughly reviewed these events with independent outside counsel,” the CEO added. “This indeed was entirely a personal matter, and the matter is closed.”
Aron’s post came in the wake of a story published by the media outlet Semafor, which reported that a woman named Sakoya Blackwood had used fake identities to try to extort the entertainment executive for hundreds of thousands of dollars after he sent her sexually explicit texts and photos.
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According to a federal indictment, a grand jury charged Blackwood with having “used multiple online identities … in a catfishing and extortion scheme” wherein she “threatened to release sexually explicit photographs of, and sexually explicit communications involving, a particular individual who is the Chief Executive Officer of a publicly traded company." The indictment withheld the victim's name.
Semafor reported that, according to sources familiar with the matter, “Victim-1” was in fact Aron. The outlet said Blackwood first imitated a Russian model whom Aron mistook for a prior lover, and then later also fabricated “burner accounts” for a fake ex-boyfriend and Vanity Fair reporter in the extortion scheme.
A spokesperson for AMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Blackwood's legal team. Aron could not be reached for comment.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
