The former owner of the Grande Roue de Montréal, sentenced last year to 30 months in prison for sextortion, has not finished with justice since his victims are now claiming $ 1.6 million from him.
In June 2019, after getting hold of a hard drive containing photos and videos of two North African businessmen, Jeff Jorgensen blackmailed them.
Calling himself Vladimir Petrov, he demanded the tidy sum of $ 2.5 million, to be paid in cryptocurrency, otherwise the intimate images would be sent to those around them, as well as to senior officials in their country.
Betrayed by his Montreal phone number with which he communicated, the ex-owner of the Grande Roue de Montréal was arrested in August 2019.
He was criminally convicted last year and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
But after filing a complaint with the police, his two victims, members of the same family, also filed a civil lawsuit, demanding $ 800,000 each in compensation.
Photo archives, Pierre-Paul Poulin
Jeff Jorgensen, at the Montreal courthouse in January 2021 with his suitcases in hand.
In a rare decision, a judge recently agreed that they do not have to reveal their identity, even if they reside on another continent.
“In the age of the internet and social media, the planet has become very small,” wrote magistrate Serge Gaudet.
Jeff Jorgensen appealed this decision, contesting this request for anonymity and confidentiality.
At the time, the latter had partially carried out his threats, by transferring certain compromising images of the victims.
“Malicious behavior”
“Due to the malicious acts [de Jorgensen], [les victimes] have seen the most intimate aspects of their personal lives grossly flaunted within their social and professional communities, thereby causing them immeasurable humiliation and an irreparable sense of violation of their privacy,” the civil suit reads.
Targeted by constant threats for two months, the two African businessmen claim to have been plunged “in a state of shock, shame and fear, which still persists”.
The broadcast would indeed have “seriously damaged” their reputation, according to them.
Last March, Jeff Jorgensen was released from the halfway house where he was assigned.