Police Arrest California Man for New York Life Insurance Extortion Scheme

Published: Tue 09 Mar 2010

Larry Roth

A man from California who thought that the New York life insurance company was cheating him threatened to start an email spam assault on the life insurer and was subsequently arrested.

Police arrested 52-year-old Anthony Digati over the weekend and charged him with extortion, according to an announcement made by Manhattan federal prosecutors on Monday.

Digati had poured nearly $50,000 into a New York Life variable life insurance policy and demanded a fourfold return.

When the life insurer refused to comply, he purportedly threatened to send six million defamatory emails about the life insurer, which federal attorneys say qualifies as extortion.

"As you have denied my claim I can only respond in this way," wrote Digati in an email message sent one month ago to dozens of New York Life employees, according to a Manhattan Federal Court criminal complaint.

"You no longer have a choice in the matter, unless of course you want me to continue with this outlined plan. I have nothing to lose, you have everything to lose."

"Of course it is spam, I hired a spam service, I could care less, The damage will be done," Digati wrote.

New York Life immediately got in touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Digati may have been aware of the possibility of legal repercussions because in one of his messages, he bragged: "No judge in the world is going to rule for a 200 billion-dollar company when there is a lonely customer that you stole from."

The spam attack was scheduled to start on Monday, Digati threatened. He also claimed that he would up his demands to $3 million after launching a critical Website, prosecutors reported. If convicted, Mr. Digati could serve up to two years in prison.