Extortion is the offense of obtaining money, property, or a service from another person through coercion, typically a threat of violence, damage to property, exposure of damaging information, or harm to reputation, distinguishing it from robbery in that the threatened harm is not necessarily immediate or physical and the victim technically complies rather than having property taken directly by force. Blackmail, the specific form of extortion involving a threat to reveal true or false damaging information about the victim unless payment or another demand is met, is treated in many jurisdictions as its own named offense or as a specific statutory variant of extortion, and both share the core structural element of coercing compliance through the threat of future harm rather than immediate force. Extortion is historically and criminologically associated with organized crime, particularly protection racketeering, in which criminal groups demand ongoing payments from businesses in exchange for not inflicting harm the group itself threatens to cause, a pattern studied extensively in organized-crime criminology as a mechanism by which criminal groups establish parallel taxation and control over a territory or industry. Modern statutory extortion also extends to conduct such as ransomware attacks, in which an offender encrypts a victim's data and demands payment for its release, illustrating how the core coercive structure of extortion has been adapted to digital and cyber contexts alongside its traditional physical and interpersonal forms.
Facts
Classification Code18 U.S.C. Section 1951 (the Hobbs Act) covers federal extortion affecting interstate commerce; violation of many state extortion statutes also counts as racketeering activity under 18 U.S.C. Section 1961 of RICO. 2 Typical PenaltyUnder United States federal law, extortion affecting interstate commerce (the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1951) is punishable by a fine and imprisonment of not more than twenty years. 2 Elements of OffenseExtortion requires a verbal or written threat used to instill fear that harm will occur unless the victim complies. Unlike robbery, the taking need not involve immediate force, and in many jurisdictions the offense is complete once the threat is communicated whether or not the benefit is ever obtained. 3 Notable ExampleIn 2019, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos publicly accused the National Enquirer parent company, American Media Inc., of attempting to extort him by threatening to publish personal photographs unless he issued a statement about the tabloid political motives; Bezos refused and disclosed the threat publicly. 3 Jurisdiction VariationEngland and Wales prosecute extortion as the offense of blackmail under section 21 of the Theft Act 1968, covering any unwarranted demand with menaces; Scotland treats extortion as a common law crime that does not require the underlying demand to be illegitimate. 3 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Wikipedia: Money Laundering
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Extortion
2. 18 U.S. Code section 1951 (Cornell LII)
Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute18 U.S.C. Section 1951(a), offense clause
Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
18 U.S.C. Section 1951(a), penalty clause
Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
View the Source 3. Extortion (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead paragraph, first sentence
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit from an individual or group through coercion, usually by threatening them with future psychological or physical harm.
United States section, robbery-versus-extortion distinction
Another key distinction is that extortion always involves a verbal or written threat, whereas robbery may not.
United Kingdom, England and Wales section
In England and Wales extorting property and money by coercion is the offence of blackmail which covers any "unwarranted demand with menaces" including physical threats. See section 21 of the Theft Act 1968 plus sections 29 and 30 of the Larceny Act 1916.
Cases section, 2019 Bezos-National Enquirer case
On February 7, 2019, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owner of Amazon and The Washington Post and currently one of the world's wealthiest people, accused the National Enquirer and its parent company American Media, Inc., of attempting to extort him by threatening to reveal nude pictures of him unless he publicly stated that he "[has] no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI's coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces."
View the Source Wikipedia: Money Laundering
Associated With: Money Laundering, Definition section, FeaturesQuote, Associated With: Money Laundering, Definition section, Features
Money obtained from certain crimes, such as extortion, insider trading, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and illegal gambling is 'dirty' and needs to be 'cleaned'
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