Ron Burkle Reports Being Shaken Down By Pellicano

The New York Times reports:

When the supermarket billionaire Ronald W. Burkle accused a New York Post gossip columnist of demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars for protection from nasty items in Page Six, it was not the first time that he had told authorities he was the victim of a shakedown.

In 2002, Mr. Burkle has told federal investigators, the Hollywood private detective Anthony Pellicano demanded that Mr. Burkle pay him $100,000 to $250,000 in exchange for Mr. Pellicano's agreeing not to investigate him. Mr. Pellicano told him he had been hired by Michael S. Ovitz, the former talent agent, who had been a partner with Mr. Burkle in several ill-fated business ventures.

Mr. Burkle's account of that meeting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, related in a summary that was reviewed by The New York Times and corroborated by Mr. Burkle in an interview this week, provides a new glimpse into Mr. Pellicano's methods of drumming up new business and holding himself out as a broker between rich and powerful adversaries — thereby drawing them into his realm at Hollywood's underbelly. In Mr. Burkle's telling, it also shows how he was able to deflect a heavy-handed approach from Mr. Pellicano, while other Hollywood personalities, when similarly confronted, either hired Mr. Pellicano — who was charged in February with wiretapping and conspiracy — or became one of his targets.

The Pellicano story grows and grows.I guess not everyone is sensitive to civil liberties.