An executive chef from Alexandria has been charged in a plot to blackmail a Detroit businessman by threatening to release photos of the man having gay sex, according to a charging documents filed in Michigan.
Shawn Lightfoot, 46, who claims to have studied under some of Washington’s renowned chefs, has been charged with extortion and is scheduled to be extradited to Michigan for a June 17 hearing.
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In 2004, Lightfoot was found guilty in a similar scheme in Alexandria and sent to jail.
Federal agents said the latest victim was awakened in his hotel during a business trip to D.C. last month by a phone call from an unidentified man claiming to have photos taken the night before of the victim participating in homosexual acts.
The victim said he didn’t remember the liaison, but felt woozy and found that his $20,000 Rolex watch was missing, as well as a cr
edit card.
The businessman returned to Detroit and told his wife and the FBI about the threats, and agreed to let federal agents record his phone conversations.
Over the next three weeks, the caller threatened to tell the man’s wife and business and texted pictures of the businessman. The caller demanded the businessman wire $25,000 in hush money or he would “make his life miserable,” the FBI affidavit said.
One photo showed a black male hand holding the businessman’s driver’s license. Another picture showed the victim leaning off a sink and the black male’s hand on his back.
On June 2, Lightfoot told the businessman to send the money by 2 p.m. or he would make sure the victim’s life was destroyed. He provided a bank account in Herndon.
At 2:30 p.m., federal agents caught sight of Lightfoot driving near his home in Alexandria. At that moment, the victim called Lightfoot from an FBI office in Michigan while the agents on the ground watched Lightfoot answer his Bluetooth headset.
The surveillance agents turned on their sirens, which the victim could hear on his end of the recorded phone call.
In 2003, Lightfoot was arrested in Alexandria for extortion, receiving stolen goods and credit card theft. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to five years behind bars.
Lightfoot, according to his biography, is a married father of four got his start as a chef at Hogates Seafood Restaurant 20 years ago and later studied under Chef A. Renato of the Georgetown Club and at the Culinary Institute of America in New York.
