{"id":226726,"date":"2026-05-11T01:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226726\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T01:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T01:09:24","slug":"bucks-owner-wesley-edens-blackmailed-after-fling-with-chinese-divorcee-feds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/226726\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks owner Wesley Edens blackmailed after fling with Chinese divorc\u00e9e: feds"},"content":{"rendered":"

The billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Bucks was allegedly blackmailed by a Chinese-born divorc\u00e9e after he hooked up with her \u2014 and she demanded half his fortune and hid compromising material in a box of sanitary pads, according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Wesley Edens, 64, who is also the co-founder of Wall Street investment firm Fortress Investment Group and owner of the Aston Villa soccer team, had sex with Changli \u201cSophia\u201d Luo, 46, after she slid into his LinkedIn DMs in 2022, according to federal prosecutors and\u00a0the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Edens, who was newly divorced, had a night of passion at Luo\u2019s Manhattan apartment, she sent him a desperate love letter \u2014 and then became progressively more deranged when he did not respond, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n

\"WesMilwaukee Bucks co-owner Wesley Edens was the alleged victim of an extortion scheme from an ex-lover. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI never told you I love you, and tonight I want to tell you that, I have been restraining my feeling [sic] for you, as I do love you from the bottom of my heart!\u201d Luo wrote to Edens.<\/p>\n

Luo then undertook a months-long blackmail campaign against Edens \u2014 during which she demanded $1.2 billion, half of Edens\u2019 estimated $2.5 billion fortune, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

Luo was indicted last year over the alleged shakedown, which involved threatening to publish videos and photos of the pair having sex.<\/p>\n

Last May, FBI agents searched Luo\u2019s apartment and found a phone hidden in a laundry basket and another in a box of sanitary pads, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

One phone had several pornographic videos and images that had Edens\u2019s face edited onto another man\u2019s body, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Luo also arrested on June 14 at JFK International Airport as she tried to board a flight to China, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\"ChangliChangli \u201cSophia\u201d Luo allegedly photoshopped Edens\u2019s face onto naked images. One World Initiative<\/p>\n

Edens was not named by federal prosecutors, but the WSJ pieced the details together linking the case to the billionaire \u2014 and a rep confirmed he was the target of Luo\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, Luo tried to hit Edens where it hurt \u2014 she reached out to his family and his ex-wife and threatened to go to his investors.<\/p>\n

Months later, she wrote to Edens alleging that he had had sex with her when she was mentally incapacitated.<\/p>\n

Luo told Edens her \u201chome has cameras,\u201d and said that everything Edens \u201cdid was caught on camera,\u201d threatening to go to the media unless he apologized, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure your family and business partners will learn about you and your misdeeds from these interviews and will provide exposure that will taint your record forever,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

Edens denied Luo\u2019s allegations but went along with the shakedown, hoping to prevent harassment of his family and public embarrassment, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

In an initial settlement, Edens agreed to pay Luo $6.5 million, including $1 million upfront, following a Zoom mediation overseen by a former judge.<\/p>\n

Following the settlement, Luo found out she had HPV, a sexually transmitted infection that can lead to cancer, according to her lawyers.<\/p>\n

She blamed Edens and looked to renegotiate the deal, asking for as much as $1.215 billion.<\/p>\n

Luo was charged with four counts, including blackmail and destruction of records, and has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

She was released on a $500,000 bond and placed under home detention. <\/p>\n

She is scheduled to face trial later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The billionaire owner of the Milwaukee Bucks was allegedly blackmailed by a Chinese-born divorc\u00e9e after he hooked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2850,1268,21,9,11,10,58],"class_list":["post-226726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-lawsuits","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}