Yoko Ono’s Chauffeur Arrested For Alleged Extortion Plot
Posted December 14, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Yoko Ono was the victim of an alleged extortion plot, according to New York Police, who claim her chauffeur threatened to publicize embarrassing photographs and audiotapes if she didn’t pay him millions of dollars.
Koral Karsan, Ono’s New York driver for the last six years, was arrested Wednesday. The chauffeur allegedly threatened to circulate the images and tapes and threatened to kill her son Sean Lennon if she didn’t pay him $2 million (US).
The driver has denied the allegations.
Karsan reportedly sent Ono a letter explaining that he’d secretly photographed her and taped her conversations in the car and delivered the note on Dec. 8, the anniversary of John Lennon’s death.
“She is one woman who has been through enough,” Ono’s spokesman Eliot Mintz said.
“For an employee — especially a trusted employee who drove her — to attempt a shakedown has left her just absolutely shocked.”
Karsan allegedly talked to one of Ono’s associates about killing Ono, her son and himself.
“You’re reminded that this takes place around that time of the anniversary, when she is in a particularly vulnerable position,” Mintz said.
“It just adds insult to injury. This one’s really cold.”
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