Oprah Winfrey's Extortion Nightmare

Oprah Winfrey, who is considered the most powerful and influential woman in the United States, is allegedly being extorted for 1.5 million dollars. Keifer Bonvillain, 36, is threatening to release taped phone conversations that he says would be extremely damaging to Ms. Winfrey's reputation.

Keifer Bonvillain has allegedly demanded that one of Oprah Winfrey's representatives pay him the large amount of money. In return, he would turn over 12 hours of recorded telephone conversations he had with one of Oprah Winfrey's employees.

The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times, who previously did not disclose the sources of this case, reported Saturday, 1/6/07, that Oprah Winfrey was the target of this major extortion attempt.

On December 15, 2006, Keifer Bonvillain was arrested at an Atlanta Hotel parking lot. He was later released on $20,000 bond. Keifer Bonvillain met Oprah Winfrey's employee at a part two years ago. The federal complaint states that Bonvillain grilled Oprah Winfrey's employee about Oprah and her business over a several week period. Sometime in October, Mr. Bonvillain sent an email to Oprah Winfrey reporting this employee had been talking badly about her. The complaint does not say what the employee said to Bonvillain. One of Oprah Winfrey's attornies wrote to Keifer Bonvillain warning him that information taped was false.

The employee from California admitted to talking to Bonvillain. The employee admits to answering questions about Oprah Winfrey and the company. "At no time during any of these telephone conversations did I give Mr. Bonvillain permission to tape record our discussions; neither did Mr. Bonvillain inform me that he was recording our conversations", stated the employee.

In November, Keifer Bonvillain allegedly sent a letter to Oprah Winfrey informing her that he had tapes of the conversations he had with her employee. When one of Oprah Winfrey's representatives returned Keifer Bonvillain's phone call, he told the representative he had 12 hours of taped discussions.