One of New York’s most high-profile gossip columnists has been suspended in the wake of allegations that he tried to shake down a billionaire by charging him to keep negative stories out of the press.


N.Y. Daily News:

FBI agents are still gathering evidence in the New York Post scandal, as the investigation into a Page Six reporter’s extortion of a billionaire investor accelerates, sources said yesterday.

E-mails and videotaped conversations are the key pieces of evidence of the shakedown in which longtime Page Six staffer Jared Paul Stern asked businessman Ron Burkle for $220,000 in return for a year’s “protection” against false items on the gossip page.

“We are cooperating with the ongoing investigation,” said David Fine, a former federal prosecutor who is one of Burkle’s lawyers.

Link

Rooted in Truth. Independent by Design.

Your support helps ensure that rigorous reporting, thoughtful analysis, and investigative journalism remain accessible to everyone.

Support independent journalism.

SUPPORT TRUTHDIG