A German man who tried to blackmail Cindy Crawford over a photograph showing the supermodel’s young daughter gagged and bound was sentenced Tuesday to two years behind bars.
Edis Kayalar, 26, was found guilty of one count of extortion and two counts of attempted extortion after he demanded more than $100,000 from Crawford, a court near the southern German city of Stuttgart ruled.
The Crawfords’ daughter, Kaia, seven years old at the time, told her parents, who were unaware of the image, that her nanny had taken the photograph at the family home in the U.S. as part of a “Cops and Robbers” game.
Kayalar, a friend of the nanny, took possession of the photo and warned Crawford and her businessman husband Rande Gerber that he would sell the picture to tabloid newspapers unless they paid him.
The couple paid him $1,000 last July and received the photo in return. But two days later, Kayalar allegedly claimed to have a digital copy of the picture and demanded more money.
Crawford, 44, and Gerber, 48, reported the extortion attempt, triggering an FBI investigation in the U.S.
Prosecutors say Kayalar, a professional model according to entertainment Web site TMZ, demanded another $5,000 in September but he was deported soon afterward due to immigration law violations.
He then phoned the couple in November and demanded they transfer $100,000 to his bank account in Germany.
Kayalar then became worried the money would raise eyebrows with social welfare authorities, since he was receiving unemployment benefits, and traveled to Turkey, allegedly to open a separate bank account for the money from Crawford.
When he saw that the case had hit the local newspapers, Kayalar feared arrest in Turkey and returned to Germany to turn himself in to police.