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U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation

In Reply, Please Refer to Release No.

219 South Dearborn Street Chicago, Illinois 60604

December 3, 2002 Plainfield Man Charged with Extortion Thomas J. Kneir, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced today the arrest of NICK GIANAKAPOULOS, age 40 of Plainfield, Illinois. GIANAKAPOULOS was arrested yesterday afternoon, without incident, in the vicinity of 67th Street and south Kedzie Avenue, in Chicago, by FBI Agents, Joliet Police Department Detectives and Will County Sherif's Police assigned to the FBI's Will County Fugitive Task Force. GIANAKAPOULOS was charged in a criminal complaint filed yesterday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of attempted extortion. According to the complaint, GIANAKAPOULOS, an electrical contractor, told an employee that a former business partner owed him $6,000. GIANAKAPOULOS solicited this employee to collect the debt for $1000. When the employee asked GIANAKAPOULOS what he was expected to do for the $1,000, GIANAKAPOULOS responded that he did not care, adding only that he should not kill his former business partner. Rather than collect the outstanding debt, the employee contacted the FBI and an investigation was initiated which included consensually monitored conversations and the use of an undercover Special Agent. GIANAKAPOULOS appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keyes in Chicago yesterday afternoon and was ordered held until his next scheduled court appearance on December 5, 2002. If convicted of the charge against him, GIANAKAPOULOS faces up to twenty (20) years incarceration. The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. EDITOR'S NOTE: A copy of the complaint filed against GIANAKAPOULOS is available from the Chicago FBI Press Office at (312) 786-2645.

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