The process of extortion: problems and qualifications

Paper Presented at the Gloders Conference on ‘Extortion Racket Services’

Vienna, Austria, 3-12-2012

Dr. Cornelis van Putten (Ph.D)

Abstract:

Several criminal investigations on serious organized crime in the Netherlands have shown
extortion to be a psychologically sophisticated crime, often difficult to prove in court. The
major reason is that extortion is often looked upon as an isolated single incident, in
accordance with the description in the Penal Code. This view, however, doesn’t capture the
way extortion often takes place in serious organized crime. In serious organized crime,
extortion is better understood as a process, where a specific chain of behavioural events are
connected with each other resulting in the crime of extortion. Law enforcement officers find it
difficult to understand the dynamics of the crime, and as a further consequence the
prosecution is unable to give a legal qualification of particular essential behaviours. This
article explains the elements of the process and the responsible actors related with it.

1. Introduction

Data without theory runs the risk of incomprehension. As such, it is often important to have a
theoretical framework to give meaning to empirical reality. This article takes issue with the
need of a structure or a framework, in terms of a modus operandi, when it comes to
understanding extortion. In many Penal Codes, the crime of extortion is usually defined by
understanding it as a coercion by means of violence or threats of violence to deliver goods,
services or money on an involuntary basis. The presence of violence, or the direct reference
to the use of violence, is an important element when it comes to an objective qualification of
the offense. The threat of violence, or the use of violence, explains the coercion and the
resulting fear a victim experiences. The way extortion is spelled out in the Penal Code is a
simple statement of what the necessary elements are in order to prove the crime.

Several criminal investigations on serious organized crime have shown extortion to be a rich
and complex psychological crime. The extortion bears three specific characteristics
 The involvement of multiple perpetrators
 A gradual development or unfolding of the extortion process
 The use of deceit and manipulation as coercive tools in the first phases of the
extortion process, prior to the use of violence or the threats with violence.

The Process of Extortion 1

These three aspects tend to make the crime of extortion invisible for a long period of time,
primarily because of the way the crime is normally looked upon. Investigators often focus on
direct behavioural interactions between victims and perpetrators. They don’t have an
adequate framework on how to understand the process responsible for the effect of the
extortion. As a consequence, they often misinterpret or simply don’t recognize the signs
because they have a narrow view on how the crime functions.

However, what if the coercion and the presence of fear need are not the direct result of
threats with violence? In other words, what if “a threat of violence” is the outcome of a serie of
activities that cause fear within the victims and coerces them to comply with the demands of
the perpetrators? As such, direct threats are not visible or recognized as such, and one
needs a more indirect route to explain the crime. This implies that one understands the
dynamics of the crime, the way the crime is prepared, the tactics that are used, the many
accessories to the crime and the sophisticated way the crime is executed.

Pathway to extortion Actors

Phase 1: Contact Phase Contactmaker (groomer)

(grooming and manipulation)

Confident (bonds with the victim)

Phase 2: Negotiation Phase
(offers and deals) Negotiator (acts as problem
solver
Phase 3: Pressure (intimidation
and pressure to comply
Controller and an eye on
(keeps
cooperate)victim)
Agressor
Phase 4: Violence of Threats with
violence Director
Figure 1: Pathway to Extortion and Relevant Actors

2. The Element of Coercion

Coercion is an important element when it comes to a qualification of the behaviours that the
crime of extortion has been committed. However, the fact that a victim complies with the
perpetrator due to coercion not only depends on the coercive act of the perpetrator, but also
on his own feelings and beliefs that he is coerced. Instead of direct objective threats, there is
also the subjective perception and expectation of the victim that, for instance, violence will be
used against him. The relation between objective facts (such as threats) and the subjective
perception of the victim, that creates fear and internal pressure to comply with the demands of
a perpetrator, need not correlate in a perfect way.

The Process of Extortion 2

 Objective facts
Coercion
Subjective Perception

Figure 2: Two factors relating to coercion

Manipulation and intimidation will have strong psychological effects that are difficult to capture
in an objective way, but often lead to coercion as well. For instance, an appeal that provoke
feelings of guilt, pity, moral indignation, or physical aspects of the perpetrators like
appearance and the “intimidating capital” of the perpetrator, all will have effects on victims to
comply with demands they don’t necessarily agree with, but which they find difficult, if not
impossible, to resist. The coercion therefore also depends on the psychological
characteristics of the victim and the perpetrator and the tactics that are used by the
perpetrator. In reality, there are many subtle ways to take control over a person by means of
coercion. The psychological strategies used to gain control over a person are for instance
nowadays well known when it comes to grooming tactics on human trafficking and sexual
exploitation of victims. When it comes to extortion, the psychological dynamics of the extortion
process are at the present not well understood and documented.

Elements that build internal pressure and lead to

Coercion
 Appel to Pity
 Reciprocity
 Intimidating Capital of perpetrator
 Moral indignation
 Suggestive remarks
 Threats
Figure 3: Elements that build pressure

To give an illustration take the following example:

A criminal S invests a certain amount of money by means of a financial consultant. At

the same time another person P creates a problem with the consultant and starts to
intimidate him. Unbeknownst to him, the intimidating person P belongs to the criminal
group of S. Then person S offers help to the financial consultant which he willingly
accepts. The intimidation of P stops. At a later time, criminal S will return and appeals
to feelings of reciprocity when he asks the financial consultant to deliver some
services. Then in a very subtle way, he is forced to deliver more services which he
finds difficult to resist. In the end, he is extorted by the criminals and coerced to
deliver many services to them against his will.

The Process of Extortion 3

Two remarks can be made. First, what the example illustrates is the fact that the coercion
starts with an appeal to feelings of reciprocity and some intimidation which is far from
sufficient to argue that it is the result of “a treat of violence”. Psychologists have shown the
appeal to reciprocity to be very influential on people’s behaviour and as such it is a strong
manipulative tool.

Second, the example illustrates that the victim is unaware that he is going to be extorted in
the first place, or at least that he is the victim of intentional acts that lead to extortion.
Therefore, deceit plays an important role as well. Whenever the relation between a victim and
the perpetrators start as a normal business relationship, it takes quite some time to discover
the intentions of the perpetrators. It is therefore an unfolding process leading to a tight grip on
the victim. It is only at a later stage that the extortion is exposed. Moreover, the involvement
of many perpetrators with different roles also lead to confusing situations. A victim simply
doesn’t understand who is to be considered as a friend or a foe during these first phases
(phase 1 and 2) of the extortion process.

2. The presence of fear

The qualification of the presence of coercion often starts with a qualification of the presence
of fear. The fear is the observed effect of coercion which is often the effect of threats. It is
often well noted that victims experience fear at a particular moment during the extortion
process. When this fear comes to the attention of law enforcement, it is often interpreted as a
sign that a victim is coerced by means of threats of violence. However, the presence of fear is
far from sufficient to argue in a convincing way that the crime of extortion has taken place. In
order to prove the crime of extortion, one needs a more objective qualification to the fear and
this implies specific behavioural interactions between victims and perpetrators that justify that
fear as being the result of “threats with violence”.

What is important to mention here is a ruling of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands on the
the elements of extortion. It has qualified the element of “threatening with violence” in a
significant way. As the jurisprudence on extortion nowadays states: “a threat of violence” can
be present when the perpetrators have “created such circumstances that the fear of the victim
that violence will be used against him, is justified.” As such, a “threat of violence” need not be
direct and observable in order to explain the fear of the victim. All that is needed is a detailed
construction of the circumstances under which the victim experiences fear. Such
circumstances can only be constructed by means of a description of the modus operandi of
the crime.

4. The modus operandi of extortion

The Process of Extortion 4

A specific modus operandi that has been revealed during several criminal investigations, and
which was illustrated in the former paragraph, can be described as follows: a problem is
created with a victim by one or multiple perpetrators, or an existing situation (with a third
party) is turned into a problem as a result of misleading information or deceit. Then a solution
is offered to the victim in terms of a negotiation or an offer that will solve the problem.
Whenever that deal is accepted, mainly under misleading or intimidating circumstances, the
victim is psychologically bound to the perpetrators. The situation is then used to keep a tight
grip on the victim, and the extortion is an established fact.

Phase 1 Phase 2: Phase 3: Phase 4:

Creation of a Offer for a Coercion and
Tightening the
Problem Solution and Extortion
Grip on the Victim
acceptance

Figure 4: Phases of the Extortion

This kind of extortion can be considered as the “ideal extortion”. It is “ideal” from the
perspective of the perpetrators: it is coordinated in such a way that it hardly bears any overt
signs of coercion and threats of violence in the first place. But in order to establish this kind of
extortion, the victim needs to be prepared psychologically in order to comply with the
regulations of the offender. Whenever the relation is established in terms of a deal or a
negotiation, it becomes very difficult for a victim to report it to the authorities because of the
fact that he voluntarily complied with the conditions that were put forward in the deal.
Moreover, he is provided with a false sense of control and security on the situation since he
believes to have solved the problem by his own efforts. He is falsely lead to the belief that the
problem can be solved whenever he has pays his debts or accepts some deal or help. In
reality, however, the extortion doesn’t stop when the victim pays off his debts, for, among
other things, his debts will keep rising during the extortion by means of deceit and
manipulation. Furthermore, a friendly “free” offer of help will be as a seed that is planted
today. At a later time, the free gift will be harvested when the criminals return and demand
some or more services, goods or money from the victim.

The only reason direct threats or violence are used during this type of extortion is when the
victim starts to resist at a certain moment. This need not be an active resistance, but can also
be the result of his inability to meet the demands of the perpetrators at a specific time. If this
happens, it usually happens at a later stage during the extortion process. However, what is
important is that the extortion is established in the first place without any use or threaths of
violence. It only needs a starting point where the victim is misled and manipulated in order to
agree with a specific proposal.

The Process of Extortion 5

This “ideal extortion” turns out to be difficult to prove in court. First, because of the absence of
any of the necessary elements of the offense in the first period of the crime. The fear the
victim experiences therefore seems to lack any objective grounds: it is not the result of threats
and use of violence. Second, since the preparation and the execution of the crime has been
divided between multiple actors with varying behaviours, the underlying organization with its
sole intention to extort the victim is far from evident. It stands in need of explanation. It
requires that the prosecution qualifies all the behaviours as evidence in support of the
charges and then bind them into a logical and coherent narrative. However, in order to do so,
one requires an overarching structure to bind these parts of evidence into a coherent
narrative, or modus operandi, which gives an objective justification to the fear of the victim.
What we have seen during several criminal investigations is a lack of understanding from the
side of law enforcement on how the extortion is prepared and executed and then as a result
they fail to qualify the fear of the victim in a proper way. They keep focussing on a direct
behavioral interaction such as overt threats, instead of gaining understanding of the
circumstances that justify the fear of the victim. The remainder of this article will focus on this
modus operandi.

5. General aspects of the extortion process

The gradual process of extortion often leads to a situation where the victim is at first unaware
of the intentions of the perpetrators and then gradually is coerced into a situation that is very
difficult for him to resist. The fear the victim experiences is then the result of the
circumstances by which the crime is committed. This process can be understood as a modus
operandi which consists of four phases. In this paragraph these phases will be briefly
discussed.

 Phase 1: Contact Phase (misleading, manipulation)

In the contact phase, a normal business relation is set up. In the case of a financial
consultant, a criminal wants to make use of his financial services and invests a certain
amount of money. Sometimes the financial consultant is aware of the criminal background of
his client, but in other cases he is not. In many cases the criminal client is introduced by an
acquaintance of the financial consultant and as such the acquaintance is used to create a set
up with the intention to extort the victim. Whatever the aetiology of the extortion, the fact is
that the extortion usually doesn’t start out of the blue.

 Phase 2: Negotiation/mediation phase (offers and deals)

When the stage is set and the business relation is in full play, it will be used at a later time to
create a problem. In reality, a problem can be anything. For example, a person is summoned
to return an investment prior to the original agreements. As such, the terms of the agreement
are suddenly changed one-sided which causes financial problems by the victim. In another
instance, a business transaction fails on purpose and the victim is given the blame. But why

The Process of Extortion 6

should a victim agree with a sudden change of the original agreement, or why should he take
the blame? In order to establish that the victim will comply with the perpetrator, he will run
through a two-stage process. First, the victim needs to acknowledge under pressure that he is
in debt. The way this pressure is used depends on the person who is going to be extorted and
his vulnerability to the intimidating character of the perpetrator. Whenever the victim resist,
different kind of pressures and intimidations can be used. Most of the time, the victim
experiences stress in the situation when confronted with a “problem”. This stress can vary
from an unpleasant experience to extreme fear and when the perpetrator persists, which he
usually does, the victim is more willing to accept a solution that has been put forward by the
perpetrator. This will release him temporarily from the pressure or stress he experiences.
Second, whenever the victim agrees with the new terms put forward by the perpetrators, the
arrangements are made on how to pay off the debt. A debt can take many guises. In several
criminal investigations it has taken the guise of a financial loan with a high interest rate, or a
periodical payment in turn for protection. In the end, the extortion is then established without
any overt signs of violence, or threaths of violence, towards the victim. As such, the extortion,
well prepared and executed, remains a hidden crime by which the perpetrator has a strong
psychological grip on its victim.

What criminal investigations have shown is the importance of a confident during this phase. A
confident is a person who plays a double role. On the one hand he is friendly and cooperative
towards the victim. On the other hand, he prepares the scene together with the perpetrators,
unbeknownst to the victim. When the victim experiences extreme stress, or fear, because of
the pressure that is put upon him, the confident turns up and provides him with advice and
some comfort. Since he is a confident to the victim, the victim is more willing to listen to the
friendly advice from the confident. As such, he can be manipulated in the right direction
towards the will of the perpetrator. A confident often invests quite some time in building up a
relationship with the victim.

 Phase 3: Pressure (coercion and intimidation to comply with the deal)

The second phase can run for months, or even years, without any overt signs of extorting
signals like threats and use of violence. As long as the victim complies with the demands of
the perpetrator, the relation between the victim and the perpetrator appears as a normal
business relationship on the basis of mutual agreement. In reality, however, sooner or later a
victim starts having difficulties to pay off its debts. Whenever this happens, more pressure will
be used by the perpetrators in order to (re)assure that the victim will agree to the terms. In
this situation, the involuntariness of the deal will become more manifest, since the victim will
show signs of stress on how to comply with the deal. Whenever he becomes reluctant, the
situation moves towards the escalation phase where threats and use of violence will become
a standard procedure to keep the victim on the right track. However, the phase of pressure
can take quite some time and as long as the victim is able to pay off its debts, the perpetrator

The Process of Extortion 7

doesn’t need to resort to threats of violence in order to reach its goals. In many circumstances
new deals are putting forward and the victim will face more difficulties to pay off his debts.
What is often seen in this phase is that the perpetrators build up a lot of pressure on the
victim and then suddenly releases this pressure. The psychological situation of the victim
oscillates between suffocating and breathing. At that moment, when the pressure is released,
a new proposal is put forward that gives the victim a spark of hope that he is able to solve his
problems. It is a game the perpetrators can play for a long period of time.

 Phase 4: Escalation (threats of violence and use of violence)

Extortion, in most cases, leads to difficulties when it comes to paying off the debts. Whenever
this happens, a fine or penalty is given to the victim. Whenever the extortion reaches this
phase, one sees the first threats of violence or use of violence towards the victim more
openly. It is often at this phase that a victim considers the possibility of reporting his situation
towards the authorities. Nevertheless, even though he experiences a lot of fear, whenever the
extortion is well prepared and executed up by the perpetrators, the victim is often very
reluctant to report it to the authorities. This is mainly the result of the psychological tactics that
have been imposed on the victim for a long period of time.

6. Multiple perpetrators and role differentiation

When one takes a specific case into consideration, such as the extortion of a financial
investor that has been brought to light during a two year criminal investigation, the different
phases show different roles that are taken by different perpetrators. At least six roles have
been identified during these investigations. One must note, however, that a person can take
multiple roles such as being a contact maker, a confident and a negotiator at different times
during the extortion process. But to understand the process of extortion and to understand the
psychological impact on the victim, there is a logical distinction to be made between the
different roles, rather than a factual distinction between persons.

The crime is organized by a director who uses different persons to commit the crime the way
he has intended. The following roles can be identified

 Contact maker
The contact maker is used to introduce the director to the victim. There are different
ways a victim will start its contact with the director of the extortions. It can start as a
normal business relationship. It can also start when a problem is created with a third
party and the contact maker leads the victim towards the director in order to arrange a
solution to the problem.

 Confident

The Process of Extortion 8

 A confident is a person who plays a double role in the extortion. It is an extremely
important person. When his is able to manipulate his victim in the right way, the extortion
can be executed without any use of violence. Moreover, by means of a confident, the
director of the extortion knows exactly how the victim thinks and moves and this makes
him able to select the right psychological tactics to control him.

 Negotiator/mediator
A negotiator comes into play the moment the problem is created and a solution is
needed. In this phase the victim experiences a lot of fear since he is put under pressure
to agree with the terms of the director. The negotiator will present himself as an
independent party and authority that is willing to soften the strain of the pressure. In
reality he is misleading his victim into a false sense of control and belief that he is taken
care of the problem with the right interests.

 Controller
A controller can be distinguished from a confident, since he puts pressure on the victim
to keep paying its debts. A controller can turn from a friendly supporter (i.e a confident) to
a person who openly starts putting pressure on the victim sometimes leading towards
direct intimidation. In other cases, a controller is an independent person who is used by
the director at a certain time during the extortion process in order to manipulate the
victim. For instance, he is telling the victim that the director is an extremely dangerous
person, that he has corrupt contacts within the police force, etc..

 Aggressor
The aggressor usually reveals himself in the third and fourth phase of the extortion. He
will threaten the victim more directly when he is unable or unwilling to keep himself to the
terms of the agreement.

 Director
The director is the one who organizes the extortion and is the main responsible
character.

7. Conclusion

By considering extortion in serious organized crime as a process that progresses through

time, a crime that entails many parts and different roles, it helps us to understand the
dynamics of the crime. As such, there is a twofold advantage. First, the scarce investigative
tools can be used more efficiently if one understands the dynamics of extortion. If one is able
to recognize the dynamics of the crime at an early stage, one is able to invest in the strategy
to prove or stop the crime. Second, the prosecution is better equipped to qualify particular,

The Process of Extortion 9

and apparently, innocent behaviours as being essential to the crime when it presents the case
to court. In particular when it comes to organized crime, it can be used to argue in a
convincing way that the crime is committed. The fear a victim experiences can be seen as the
result of different circumstances. Those circumstances need to be brought into a logical and
coherent narrative, such as the modus operandi, that explains the crime. In sum one needs

 To understand the whole story in terms of the modus operandi in order to qualify all
the behavioural interactions as being evidence that extortion is taken place, even at
an early stage
 To understand the different phases of the crime and different roles to identify the
accessories to the crime and their particular behaviours.
 To qualify the observed fear of the victim as the result of this particular modus
operandi, which is in the end a sophisticated way of arguing that the observed fear is
a result of “threathening with violence”.

5. Future directions

When one takes into consideration the process and dynamics of the crime from a
psychological perspective, one needs to focus on the specific interactions during the four
phases of the crime. In every phase, specific behaviours are exposed that are the result of
manipulation, deceit, intimidation or threats by means of different accessories to the crime.
The psychological aspects underlying these behavioural interactions need to be brought to
light. For instance, the effects of deceit; the effects of a confident during the extortion; the
appeal to reciprocity, the stress and coping mechanisms of the victims, etc. Those processes
stand in need of explanation in order to challenge folk psychological, or common-sense,
assumptions that are buried in the perception of law enforcement on how extortion works.
Moreover, as was stated at the beginning, the jurisprudence on extortion nowadays
recognizes the role of circumstances as being essential to understand the nature of “threats
of violence”. This means that the fear a victim experiences need not be the result of direct
threats. As such, the psychological tactics that are used by the perpetrators and the
psychological effects on the victims form part of the explanation what these circumstances
are.

The Process of Extortion 10