Two Maldivians arrested in Sri Lanka over sex-tape blackmail

Two Maldivians have been arrested in Sri Lanka on charges of blackmailing and extorting millions of rufiyaa from several politicians and businessmen using their sex tapes.

Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department told Sri Lanka’s The Sunday Times that the suspected racketeers were arrested yesterday from a hotel in Dehiwala, Colombo with two laptops containing nude video clips of more than 100 people, including five politicians.

The suspects reporetedly had more than MVR6.5 million (US$421,530) in their bank accounts. They are believed to have run the blackmailing scam for more than two years.

A spokesman for the Maldives Police Service told The Maldives Independent that the same case has been filed locally as well.

The Sri Lankan CID launched an investigation after a Maldivian businessman filed a complaint claiming the suspects had demanded a million rufiyaa to stop posting his nude video clip online.

The nude pictures and videos were obtained through Facebook, a detective from the Cyber Crimes Division explained.

“Soon after a response [to a friend request from a woman] is received the female exchanges pictures and subsequently proposes that they communicate via skype and use the webcam,” the detective was quoted as saying.

“As soon as the prospective victim switches on the webcam from the females side a pre-recorded video with nude pictures is played. In response, the male on the other end, too, poses for a nude video which is then recorded and used for the blackmailing purpose.”

In February 2011, Maldivian police arrested 14 persons including a minor after the group used a fraudulent Facebook account to acquire videos of politicians, businessman and other members of the public and used the material to blackmail them for money.