Man pleads guilty to demanding €1m from Cruise

A man known for brokering deals involving compromising celebrity photos and videos has agreed to plead guilty in a plot to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor’s stolen wedding photos, court documents have shown.

David Hans Schmidt, 47, faces up to two years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

A plea agreement for Schmidt’s co-defendant was filed. Marc Lewis Gittleman, who authorities say helped recover photos from a computer hard drive, has been charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.

Gittleman, 33, faces up to five years in prison.

Gittleman and Schmidt were arrested on July 26 after US authorities said Gittleman obtained photos of Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes from the event’s official photographer, court documents show.

Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said.

Starting in May, Schmidt had repeated contact with Cruise representatives and threatened to release the photos if he didn’t receive between $1.2 million and $1.3 million, officials said.

Authorities said Schmidt sent multiple e-mails to Cruise’s camp, including one with 13 wedding photographs attached as proof he had them. Schmidt also said there were about 7,600 images and he hoped a “commendable and quiet arrangement could be reached” with Tom Cruise, court documents said.

Schmidt also has tried to auction off Paris Hilton’s diaries, along with photos of her in various stages of undress and other personal items that had been locked away in a Los Angeles-area storage locker until a few months ago.

He has claimed to have brokered deals to sell a sex video of Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on Saved by the Bell and a video of skater Tonya Harding’s wedding night, published reports said. He also claimed to have obtained topless shots of rescued US army prisoner of war Private 1st Class Jessica Lynch.