Former Republican state Rep. Ron Sandack paid an extortion ring $3,000 not to reveal incriminating information about him, including video of a webcam encounter with a woman, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Sandack, who resigned in July citing "cyber security issues,” filed a police report earlier that month claiming he was the victim of an “internet scam.”
In September, Downers Grove police announced Sandack was lured into chatting online with a young woman before sending the extortion money and seeing a fake Facebook account opened in his name, the Sun-Times reports. Sources told the paper that video of a Skype encounter was posted on Facebook and tagged with his contacts.
On Friday, the attorney general’s office reportedly announced that Sandack sent $3,000 to the extortion ring. When the extortionists pushed for $5,000 more, Sandack ignored the request and alerted police, the Sun-Times reports.
According to the report, police believe the ring targeted “high profile individuals” that were mainly “in the medical field as doctors or real estate agents and includes political figures.” Additionally, a Western Union report shows the group received over $14,000 between Sept. 17, 2015 and July 17, 2016, the Sun-Times reports.
Sandack apologized for his actions in September, conceding that he engaged in “inappropriate online conversations” and admitting that he was the victim of an extortion scheme, according to the report.
In September, the Downers Grove ultimately announced that they couldn’t seek criminal charges in the case because the apparent perpetrator or perpetrators live in the Philippines.
