Report: UFC president Dana White named in Las Vegas sex-tape extortion lawsuit
UFC president Dana White was named in a lawsuit on Friday as the “prominent Las Vegas businessman” involved in a sex-tape extortion scheme in 2015, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Ernesto Joshua Ramos filed the lawsuit against White, claiming that White violated a deal the two had in 2016 to pay Ramos $450,000 for not disclosing White’s name after the criminal sex-tape extortion case closed, per the report.
Ramos also claimed that he never demanded money from White, and said White’s lawyers provided “false derogatory information” about him to the FBI, per the report.
“I just found out that a bulls--t lawsuit was filed against me yesterday,” White said in a statement, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “This guy went to federal prison for trying to extort me over five years ago. Now he’s hired a lawyer who is also a convicted felon, and he’s trying to extort me again for $10 million. He got no money from me last time and he won’t be getting any money from me this time. I look forward to the court dismissing this quickly so I can get rid of these scumbags forever.”
Ramos was arrested in 2015 and charged with trying to extort $200,000 from a Las Vegas-area businessman after an “overseas rendezvous” with an adult nightclub dancer. FBI agents videotaped the exchange of money between the unnamed businessman and Ramos, per the report. Ramos eventually pled guilty in federal court and served just more than a year in prison.
The businessman was not named in the initial complaint, and a federal judge signed a protective order prohibiting the disclosure of his name, initials and company.
White, who Ramos now claims was the unnamed businessman, had been seeing the dancer for months, per the lawsuit. She allegedly taped herself having sex with White without his knowledge at a hotel room in Brazil, too, when White was there overseeing a UFC event.
Ramos’ lawsuit claims that White and his lawyers offered Ramos money during the criminal case to both keep his name out of it and to persuade him to plead guilty, though they did not ever give him any cash.
“The actions of White were fraudulent, oppressive and designed to encourage Ramos to plead guilty so he could negotiate a substantial settlement, which would prevent the disclosure of his actions at trial for the personal benefit of White and his related businesses and interest,” the suit alleges, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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