As if exposing David Beckham's rants regarding his missed opportunity of knighthood were not enough, hackers demanded almost a million euros from his advisers.
According to a report from Mirror, these hackers were believed to be using Russian servers to access files and messages from the database in a sports agency headed by Simon Oliveira, Beckham's publicist.
A source shared that the hackers approached Doyen Sports, a part of Doyen Global, through email and attempted to facilitate a meet up via third party. It further noted, "The hack wasn't targeted at David at all - it was very much a fishing expedition but David has been caught in the crossfire."
Artem Lovuzov, the blackmailer, demanded "a generous donation" from Doyen Sports CEO Nelio Lucas. Lovuzov specified the term "generous" by stating "something between €500,000 and a million." Moreover, he warned them to contact his lawyer to settle the matter no later than Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.
The hackers, due to their failed extortion attempt, forwarded gathered and leaked information to Football Leaks. However, the website denied any participation in blackmailing Doyen Sports.
Just this week, one of the messages sent to Oliveira revealed Beckham's dismay to the Honours Committee for denying him the honor of becoming a "Sir" in 2013. The committee chose the Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins instead, thereby having the honor of attaching the acronym OBE (which stands for Officer of the Order of the British Empire) to her name.
In the email, Beckham was allegedly quoted: "Katherine Jenkins OBE for what? Singing at the rugby and going to see troops plus taking coke. F***cking joke."
Another leaked email revealed that the football ace apparently blasted the committee by saying, "They r a bunch of c***s. I expected nothing less. Who decides on the honors [sic]?? It's a disgrace to be honest and if I was American I would have got something like this 10 years ago," as published on The Telegraph.
Beckham's spokesman explained to The Telegraph that the leaked messages were taken out of context: "This story is based on outdated material taken out of context from hacked and doctored private emails from a third party server and gives a deliberately inaccurate picture."
Meanwhile, a friend defended the star player by claiming that he "just had a vent."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
