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Documents Say Crawford, Husband Being Extorted

Documents detail alleged extortion attempt against Cindy Crawford over picture of child

The model was involved in an extortion plot involving her daughter's photo.

A German man was charged Thursday with trying to extort $100,000 from former supermodel Cindy Crawford and her entrepreneur husband Rande Gerber over a photo of their daughter bound to a chair and gagged, authorities said.

Edis Kayalar, 26, has not yet been arrested. He was recently deported to Germany and believed to be in Stuttgart, authorities said.

He was charged with one count of extortion. If convicted, he could face up to two years in prison. It was not clear if he has an attorney in the U.S.

The photo was purportedly taken by the couple's former nanny earlier this year and shows the girl, then 7, bound to a chair wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

The daughter told her parents, who were unaware of the photo, that the nanny took the picture as part of a "cops and robbers" game, according to an affidavit filed in the case and first obtained by The Associated Press.

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The nanny, whose name wasn't released, has not been charged. She was fired a week before Kayalar called the couple.

Kayalar stole the photo from the nanny and repeatedly sought to get money from Crawford and Gerber, starting in July, according to the document.

Kayalar initially said he wanted to return the photo because he was a good person and didn't want to see it land in the tabloids, the affidavit said.

Gerber later met with him at a bar, where Kayalar showed him a copy of the photo and said he also took a handwritten note from the nanny's apartment that read, "The baby sitter went crazy and tied everyone up and they need your help! Please."

The nanny said she had taken the photo as a prank and was going to post it and the note on the front door of the family's house, according to the affidavit. The nanny never went through with the joke.

Gerber eventually got the photo from Kayalar and paid him $1,000 in cash "for his trouble," the affidavit said.

But Kayalar is accused of demanding more money while saying he had another copy of the photo.

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