Photographer suspected of blackmailing footballers

AFP
March 14, 2007

ROME (AFP) - Four top-class footballers playing in Italy are among a host of celebrities alleged to have been blackmailed by an Italian photographer, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Wednesday.

Photographer Fabrizio Corona is suspected of demanding money from several stars, including an Italian motorcyclist as well as footballers, in return for pictures taken of them in potentially embarrassing situations.

Corona, who has been arrested by prosecutors in the southern city of Potenza following an investigation, allegedly threatened to take these photos to the newspapers unless he was paid.

Transcripts of conversations between investigators and the sports stars involved, recorded last October, were published in Wednesday's Gazzetta.

In the transcripts, three of the footballers admit to paying Corona to prevent him going to the papers with pictures of them with women at nightclubs.