London, Sept 02: A man who attempted to extort over USD 1 million from celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes for their stolen wedding photos has agreed to plead guilty.
David Hans Schmidt, who is known for brokering deals involving compromising celebrity photos and videos has been sentenced for two years in prison and charged with a fine of 124,000 pounds.
Marc Lewis Gittleman, who, according to authorities, helped recover photos from a computer hard drive, has been charged with conspiracy to commit extortion and has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Both culprits were arrested on July 26 when the federal authorities mentioned that the wedding photos of the couple in Italy were obtained from a damaged hard drive of the wedding's official photographer, court documents show.
Before this, Schmidt also attempted to auction off Paris Hilton's diaries, along photos of her in various stages of undress.
Bureau Report
