Woman suspected in extortion scheme makes 1st court appearance
A Las Vegas woman charged with extorting more than $12 million from a businessman appeared in court Tuesday morning wearing a mask with the word “blessed” scrawled on it.
Ava Blige, 30, is accused of extorting the businessman by threatening to publicly reveal details of their personal relationship. Las Vegas police said in an arrest report for Blige that she also claimed to have thousands of photos from the relationship and repeatedly threatened to publish them on social media unless he paid her.
The businessman’s name was blacked out in a Las Vegas police arrest report released to the public.
Justice the Peace Karen Bennett-Haron on Tuesday ordered a criminal complaint in the case sealed and set a new preliminary hearing date in the case for Dec. 8.
Neither Blige, who was released from jail and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring device and avoid contact with the businessman, nor her attorney, Max Berkley of the Clark County public defender’s office, had any comment on the charges.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
