MLB Hall of Famer David Ortiz reveals he is the victim of an EXTORTION plot by hackers who have targeted his phone and threatened to reveal his secrets
- David Ortiz said on Instagram on Wednesday that he is being extorted
- He said a criminal group threatened to release details of his personal life
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Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz has revealed he is the victim of an extortion scheme by a criminal network that has threatened to divulge details of his personal life.
The Hall of Famer posted a video to Instagram explaining that the suspects had broken into an old cell phone, which allowed them to access his life outside the ballpark and also access his bank accounts.
“I am currently a victim of extortion. There are people who hacked my phone from more than 15 years ago, but I haven’t used it lately,” Ortiz said in Spanish. “They were browsing through my personal life and wanted to blackmail me into selling what they found on my phone from my personal life.”
While he won’t share whether the hacking came from his native Dominican Republic or the United States, Ortiz said the FBI and DEA are investigating along with the Dominican National Police’s intelligence agency.
David Ortiz released a video on Wednesday explaining that he is the victim of an extortion scheme led by a criminal network that wants to reveal details about his personal life. The MLB Hall of Famer said the group hacked into his phone and made a series of fraudulent transactions in his bank accounts six months ago.
David Ortiz said the extortion scheme is being investigated by the FBI, DEA and the intelligence unit of the Dominican Republic’s National Police.
The Dominican baseball icon said he decided to make the racketeering threat public to warn others not to get involved.
“I wanted to make this video not just for fear of what they might expose out there, but to give you my people a warning not to get involved in this because the ministry is already taking action because it was completely illegal,” he said.
The hackers managed to access his bank accounts six months ago and carried out a series of fraudulent transactions.
“And they are people who have information about you and follow you closely. Well, I don’t want any of my beautiful people from the Dominican Republic to get involved and participate in this because we’re taking legal action because it’s already about fraud and extortion, which ultimately ends with jail time,” Ortiz said.
The good-humored Ortiz retired from the sport in 2016 after three World Series titles with the Red Sox and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022.
But he has been embroiled in a series of incidents in the Dominican Republic, including a bar shooting in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo that nearly took his life in June 2019.
Dominican Republic authorities told David Ortiz (above) that he was not the intended target the night he was shot in Santo Domingo
César Peralta was arrested in Colombia in 2019 after fleeing the Dominican Republic. Peralta has been linked to the botched execution of David Ortiz, according to former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis
A private investigator hired by Ortiz released a report in March 2022 showing that the shooting was ordered by now-imprisoned Dominican drug lord César Peralta.
Former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis’s six-month investigation found that Peralta had engineered the botched execution by placing a bounty on the former Red Sox slugger and imposing sanctions on the homicide squad that tried to catch him. murder.
The findings revealed that Peralta was jealous of Ortiz and felt that the baseball great disrespected him.
Davis’s report refuted claims by the Dominican Republic’s Attorney General’s office that the shooter mistook Ortiz for another person.
The Dominican authorities did not cooperate with the private investigation, which also involved a former CIA official, Ric Prado.
In November 2022, a court in the Dominican Republic handed down sentences ranging from five to 10 years against 10 suspects charged with attempted murder.
Peralta was arrested in Cartagena, Colombia in 2019 and extradited to Puerto Rico in 2021.
He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court of Puerto Rico, also in November 2022, and faces ten years to life in prison.