AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron Was Target of Blackmail and Extortion Plot

Alex Weprin
·2 min read
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AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron was the victim of a blackmail and extortion plot.

The unconventional CEO disclosed the plot Thursday morning on X (formerly Twitter), adding that the perpetrator has already been convicted.

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“By definition, I live my life in the public eye. Unfortunately, last year I became the victim of an elaborate criminal extortion by a third party who was unknown to me related to false allegations about my personal life,” Aron shared. “Rather than give in to blackmail, I personally engaged counsel and other professional advisors and reported the matter to law enforcement. I did so knowing I risked personal embarrassment. But with my access to resources, if I did not stand up against blackmail, who could?”

According to court documents, the woman, Sakoya Blackwood, began texting Aaron in March of 2022 pretending to be a number of different people. Aron initially believed that she “was an adult woman with whom he had a previous romantic relationship, specifically a ballet dancer,” according to the documents.

Aron, who is married, sent her explicit photos in the course of texting, according to the indictment, and Blackwood — pretending to be the fictional woman’s boyfriend and later a journalist for Vanity Fair — threatened to show the photos to the press and AMC’s board unless he paid her. Aron instead brought the extortion attempt to the attention of the FBI.

“BLACKWOOD engaged in a campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats against Victim- 1, including by sending harassing, threatening, and intimidating text messages to Victim- 1,” according to the indictment, in which Aron was “Victim-1.”

According to court records, Blackwood pled guilty to one count of cyberstalking, and was sentenced to time served and supervised probation.

Semafor first reported the blackmail attempt.

Aron, long known for his unusual management style (he previously ran a cruise line, the Philadelphia 76ers and Starwood Hotels before joining AMC), has in recent years become known as the executive most willing to lean into being a “memestock,” as AMC’s shares became popular with retail traders during the pandemic.

Aron sued that investor enthusiasm to great effect, raising hundreds of millions of dollars and unveiling a regular cadence of ventures (like selling popcorn at supermarkets, and investing in a gold and silver mine) to keep interest high.

More recently he launched a separate preferred stock called “APE” shares (a reference to what AMC’s retail investors call themselves, “Apes”), and subsequently engineered a merger of those shares with common shares, giving the company the ability to raise even more cash, which it did.

Of course AMC, like all theater companies, is still suffering from the pandemic, and with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike likely to delay movies in 2024, its financial situation remains fraught.

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