{"id":731055,"date":"2026-05-10T23:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731055\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T23:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T23:54:20","slug":"wsj-billionaire-milwaukee-bucks-co-owner-targeted-in-extortion-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731055\/","title":{"rendered":"WSJ: Billionaire Milwaukee Bucks co-owner targeted in extortion scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA club, is shown at Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 9, 2015. The Wall Street Journal on Sunday identified Edens as the victim of a billion-dollar extortion plot allegedly hatched by an ex-lover. File Photo by Andrew Gombert\/EPA <\/p>\n

May 10 (UPI) — Wes Edens, the billionaire co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and an owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, was the target of a billion-dollar extortion scheme allegedly perpetrated by an ex-lover, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Edens, 64, confirmed<\/a> to the newspaper that the financier is the unnamed alleged victim in a federal indictment brought against Changli “Sophia” Luo of New York City.\n<\/p>\n

Edens, one of world’s most successful global investment management firm leaders with Fortress, has developed and owned businesses in real estate, transportation, infrastructure, health care, financial services, media and entertainment.<\/p>\n

He is also a high-profile sports team owner, including the Bucks and soccer club Aston Villa of the English Premier League. He is credited turning the Bucks from a perennial cellar dweller into a champion squad over a five-year span, culminating in the 2021 NBA championship.<\/p>\n

But he also fell victim to a lurid alleged “sextortion” scheme, his spokesman confirmed to the WSJ, admitting the Edens is the unnamed “Victim 1” cited an indictment filed last year in Manhattan federal court against Luo.\n<\/p>\n

The indictment reportedly accuses her of trying to extort Victim 1 of more than $1 billion by threatening to release videos and photos of them engaged in sex. Prosecutors alleged Luo also threatened to contact the victim’s family members and business partners in a threat to destroy his fortune if he did not pay up.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Luo was arrested June 14 at JFK International Airport as she tried to board a flight to China, the New York Post reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Mr. Edens will be making no comment on the case as the indictment speaks for itself with respect to the charges against the defendant,” his spokesman told the Journal. “Mr. Edens expects to testify under oath at the upcoming trial.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billionaire Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA club, is shown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,3025,66907,102,121,3871,6,1974,12978],"class_list":["post-731055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-bucks","tag-basketball","tag-bucks","tag-business","tag-law-and-crime","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-milwaukeebucks","tag-nba","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116552981785453799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}