Word: ransoming
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...borrowed on everything, including the house, in order to acquire enough stock to leverage his own takeover. The assistant is to take a check for 50 million yen to Osaka to complete the transaction, but the phone rings. A voice tells Gondo that his son has been kidnapped: the ransom is 30 million yen. Ready to pay any price for his own son, Gondo then learns that the son of his chauffeur was taken by mistake, but the kidnapper wants the money, anyway. At stake is the lifestyle and financial future of Gondo, his wife...
...learn that foreign customs officers regard all Nigerian travelers as potential drug couriers. Some foreign countries, including the U.S., have been quietly warning businessmen to beware of scams in which executives are lured to Nigeria by the promise of rich contracts, only to be kidnapped and held for ransom...
...meet his eldest daughter Lori at La Guardia Airport the morning of his kidnapping and then did not show up for an important business meeting a few hours later. The next day, the abductors, dramatically calling themselves the Black Cat Organization, phoned twice to demand a $3 million ransom. Those were the first of what would eventually total more than 50 calls, including one recorded message from Weinstein and a brief call he was allowed to make on ! a cellular phone that his captors lowered down into the pit. Weinstein tried to hint at his location. "This is Harvey...
Frustrations increased when two rendezvous with the kidnappers fell through. A third attempt ran aground when a squadron of police cars, pursuing suspects in a totally unrelated crime, streaked through a site at the precise moment that the Weinsteins had been directed to leave the ransom there. The anxious family was worried that the kidnappers -- who never showed -- had suspected a trap and might retaliate against their victim. Finally, last Monday morning, came the go-ahead for the money drop. As instructed, Weinstein's eldest son Mark dragged two satchels filled with bills in small denominations to the entrance...
WHAT IS IT ABOUT PEACEFUL COSTA RICA THAT seems to invite abuse? In March a group of Nicaraguans took over their country's embassy in San Jose, held 24 people hostage for 13 days, then fled with $250,000 in ransom. Last September a Honduran kidnapped Interior Minister Luis Fishman. Then last Monday five heavily armed gunmen slipped into the Supreme Court building in San Jose and took 19 magistrates and five assistants hostage. Initially the kidnappers tried to pass themselves off as Colombians, demanded $20 million, safe passage to a South American country and the release of prisoners from...