In a video posted to his Instagram account Wednesday, Boston Red Sox legend David Ortiz said he is the victim of an extortion plot by a criminal network of hackers who gained access to his old phone, and are threatening to release intimate details about his personal life.
“I am being a victim of an extortion right now. There are people who hacked my phone from more than 15 years ago, which in recent times I have not used,” Ortiz said in his native language, Spanish. “They browsed through my personal life and have wanted to extort me with that, meaning that from my personal life they would sell part of what they found on my phone.”
The 47-year-old Ortiz, who retired from his baseball career in 2017, said that the same group had also attempted fraud on his bank accounts six months ago.
While not specifying if the perpetrators of the extortion scheme were in the United States or the Dominican Republic, where Ortiz was born, he said that he has “already taken legal action,” and that the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency are investigating the matter alongside the Dominican National Police.
“I wanted to make this video not only out of fear of what they might expose out there, but to give you, my people, a heads up that you do not go getting involved in any of this because the Department is already taking action because it was totally illegal,” the three-time World Series champion said.
“Big Papi” has faced several ordeals since his retirement, including being shot and severely wounded at a bar in the Dominican Republic in 2019, as well as receiving a restraining order in 2020 from the mother of his firstborn son, who said she was “intimidated and threatened” by him.
