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A Lowell man accused of trying to extort money for a Boston celebrity is facing federal charges for allegedly trying to ruin the man’s life.
Felix Paulino is due in federal court in Boston Friday for a dentention hearing. He made his initial appearance Tuesday to answer to attempted extortion of money from a person and trasnmitting a threat to injure the reputation of a person.
The Boston celebrity is not named in an affidavit by an FBI agent that details the incident. Instead, he is referred to as John Doe and described as “a well-known Boston personality” who is married and whose financial problems were being reported in the media last fall.
The incident started in October when the agent for the celebrity received a voicemail message on his cell phone from an unknown caller.
“In the voice mail message, the caller stated to the agent that the caller had ‘incriminating evidence against one of your clients’ and requested the agent to call him back,” FBI Special Agent Daniel Romanzo wrote in his affidavit. “The message further stated, ‘If you don’t get back to me, I will go viral. I will go viral. If I were you, I’d make that call.'”
The agent had someone else return the call and Paulino allegedly explained that he had a three-minute video of the celebrity at a backroom of the club Venu that showed him trying to lure young women to his room, touching them and telling them that he is a “player.”
Paulino allegedly told the person on the phone that if he could not negotiate directly with the celebrity he would sell the video to TMZ.
In another recorded phone call, Paulino told the person negotiating with him that he thought $20,000 would be approprite not to release the video, according to court documents.
A meeting was arraigned, but Paulino apparently spotted members of a surveillance team and left.
He is due back in court Friday.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
