Salacious Police Report. Threats…Blackmail…Drama…Recorded Call.
BY: ANDREW COLTON | EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
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BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Boca Raton photographer Alan Krame allegedly has a new business model. Photograph your friends naked while in Costa Rica, then demand $100,000 in cash to guarantee those nude photos won’t be released to the public.
That’s the allegation listed in a Boca Raton Police Report obtained by BocaNewsNow.com.
According to the report, a well known area Realtor — who we are not naming — was vacationing in Costa Rica in 2013 with his then girlfriend when “friend” Alan Krame joined them and offered to take “boudoir” photos. Fast forward to 2020. The Realtor claims that Krame just attempted to extort $100,000 for the “copyright” to the photos. If the victim didn’t pay, Krame threatened to release them to porn sites.
The police report reads like a Netflix drama and is exceptionally well written by Boca Raton Police Detective Alfredo Lima. You don’t just learn about the alleged crime, you learn about the investigative tactics used to corner the alleged extortionist. We are transcribing the report without the victim’s name. Everything in italics is from the police report. We’ve added subheads as this is exceptionally long.
(The victim) stated he was contacted on December 13, 2020, by a former associate and friend, Alan Krame, who had previously worked as a photographer for him. Krame contacted the victim via text message and then email and attempted to extort the victim by threatening to release private boudoir photographs unless the victim paid Krame $100,000 by December 31, 2020. Sometime in 2013 Krame had taken these photographs of the victim and his girlfriend at the time, while they were all on vacation in Costa Rica.
Police involvement
I contacted the victim and discussed the matter with him. The victim confirmed the information in the initial report. The victim explained that he had been introduced to Krame by a friend and that Krame was a struggling photographer. The victim paid Krame to take real estate photographs for his company as part of a temporary deal. The victim eventually befriended Krame on a personal level. At one point in 2013, the victim was at a house he owned in Costa Rica and offered to let Krame come and stay with him. Krame said he couldn’t afford the flight, so the victim offered to pay for it. While in Costa Rica, Krame repeatedly offered to do a boudoir photoshoot of the victim and his girlfriend at the time. The victim and the girlfriend eventually accepted. The photoshoot was conducted while the victim and his girlfriend were naked. but was not supposed to show anything below the waist. After the trip was over, Krame gave the victim a photo album of from the boudoir photoshoot. One the last page there was a full body nude image of the victim and his girlfriend, contrary to what Krame agreed to. The victim didn’t make it an issue since these were private photographs and Krame was his friend. A few months later the business arrangement between the victim and Krame ended and Krame took it very personally. Krame became angry with with the victim and ended their friendship. Since then, the victim ended his relationship with the female in the photographs, who was a Costa Rican citizen who is no longer in contact with. The victim had no real contact with Krame from that point until December 13, 2020 when he received the text message.
Krame contacted the victim, via text message, and indicated that his life was going to be ending and that he needed to get his affairs in order. Krame said that he is in possession of photographs that he had previously taken for the victim and that he would sell the copyright of the photos to the victim. Krame also stated that this matter was to stay between the two of them and not have anyone else get involved, otherwise the offer would be terminated. Krame also went on to discuss that he and the victim were friends, but that the victim hurt Krame when their business relationship ended. Krame also stated that the victim had until December 31, 2020 to make an offer. The text message came from Krame’s phone number. The victim did not initially respond after reading the message. Later that day, the victim received an email from Krame’s email address. The email started with “I sent this via text message and got no response. You either did not get it or you chose to ignore it. So lets (sic) try e-email.” Later in the same message Krame said, “if your dignity is less important than your reputation, your multiple business’ (sic) your plane, your boat, your homes, etc, then enjoy your success and do nothing. If I cannot share in your success to some small degree, I might as well get a little satisfaction.”
Reputation threats
The victim responded to Krame by asking what Krame wanted. Krame’s response, dated December 14, 2020, was as follows: “If my reputation is on the line, I would consider it priceless. If I was going to purchase a product that was very custom to me, I would think that a Million Dollars would be fair… but being a reasonable business person, I am offering this product for sale for $100,000. I figure this is a drop in the bucket for someone of your resources.” He later wrote, “I never really intended to offer this product for sale, but things in life change and we do what we have to do.” The victim did not respond to that email.
On December 17, 2020, Krame sent another email that began with, “your lack of a response will not make this go away.” Krame then wrote at length about their prior business relationship and about specific disagreements the two had. Krame ended the email with, “last time. Do you want to purchase the copyright or not? IF you do not want to purchase the product that I offered you, I will take another path.” The victim responded and pointed out that the photographs in question were taken by Krame as a friend and not part of a business arrangement. The victim also stated that Krame gave him the copies of the photos already. The victim ended the email by writing, “why are you trying to blackmail me?”
Krame responded by writing, “I gave you copies but I own the copyright. As such I can do with the images as I please. I can publish them or sell them to any interested party. I am not trying to blackmail you. I really don’t want to hurt you or embarrass you, but I have very few options given my circumstances.” Krame later wrote… “Unfortunately, my life no longer matters and my time is limited.” Krame then wrote, “Be the bigger person. In all this time, I never tried to hurt you or embarrass you with those images. If you stayed my friend, we would have laughed about it. Make a donation to a worthy cause, my family that will suffer without me.” The victim did not respond to this email.
“I have given you enough time”
On December 22, 2020, Krame sent another email which stated, “I have given you enough time to decide if you want to make an offer purchase the copyright of my images. I have several hospital sessions coming up and will be quite busy, so I have decided that the cutoff date for the offer is December 31, 2020. Art photography sites, boudoir photography sites and Pornography sites are a tremendous business on the internet and there are a f-number of sites which will pay well for real photographs. Since the welfare of my family is the only thing that is important to me, I will take any path that will assist them, given the prognosis of my personal situation. I will do what is best for them.” The victim responded that simply owning the copyright does not give Krame the right to publish the images without a release form. The victim said that the photos are of no value to him and again pointed out that Krame is attempting to blackmail him and told him to stop.
Krame responded on December 23, 2020 and attempted to dispute the victim’s claim regarding the use of the photographs. Krame wrote, “the photographs taken of you and the young lady are my property. Since they are mine, I am going to do with them as I please.” Krame later wrote, “I may not get a lot of money for the photographs, but I will have the satisfaction that a bad person (you) is going to be embarrassed, ridiculed, and hopefully shunned by his peers. Nice try, but you screwed with the wrong guy this time.”
Detective tells victim to ask for more time
On December 29, 2020 I (the detective) suggested that the victim respond to Krame to ask for more time. The victim was at that time out of the country and would not be returning until after the New Year. The victim drafted an email stating such and asking if he and Krame could discuss the matter the following week. On December 30, 2020, Krame responded and said, “you do not need to be in the country to make an offer. If we agree on the sale price, I would postpone proceeding with my alternative. Payment can be tendered when you return.” The victim responded and again asked if they could discuss the matter upon his return.
On December 31, 2020, Krame sent an email that said the victim needed to make an offer. Krame wrote, “I would rather get some financial satisfaction for the way that I feel that you hurt me, but if that is not possible, I will settle on emotional satisfaction.” Krame later wrote, “If I just wanted to hurt you, I would have shown those images long ago and I never did. I just want to try to make a sale as a businessman. I gave you a fair deadline to make a deal and even when I thought the situation was done last week, I did not do anything. I said I would wait until December 31, 2020 at midnight and I have.” Krame ended the email by writing, “either make an offer and tell me when you will return to finalized or our conversation is over and I will do what I have to do.”
I (the Detective) suggested the victim make an offer to buy time until he returned to the US so that we could speak to Krame over the phone. The victim wrote an email and offered $25,000. On December 31, 2020, Krame responded and wrote, “the sale price for the copyright ownership was $100k. I think that $25k is low since you probably spent more than that on things much less important. Your reputation and the respect of others is something I believe to be quite valuable. Just to show you that I do want to put this to an end, make it $35K and every trace of the images will disappear forever. Really think about it, in all these years, I never shared those images with anything. They went into a locked file and were never discussed. I do not want to drag this on nor do I have some devious plan to come back and bring this up again. It will die with your purchase. If you agree, I will take no action. Tell me the day you will meet me and make the payment and we are done. Forever!” The victim did not respond to the email.
Police record phone call
The victim, using a police department issued voice recorder, placed a phone call to Krame. The call was placed from the victim’s cellphone and was made to Krame’s cell phone number. The call was made on speaker phone and was recorded. Krame answer the phone and the two began to discuss the matter. During the conversation, Krame confirmed that he had been sending the emails to the victim and said that he hadn’t heard back from the victim and assumed he wasn’t interested. Krame also said he hadn’t done anything yet. The victim said that he doesn’t want Krame to harm him and Krame responded with “I haven’t done anything yet. Let’s put it like that.” Krame said, “all I’ve done is some research and found there’s 1.4 million porn sites in the US.” Krame repeated several of the things he wrote in the emails, including that if he only wanted to hurt the victim, he would have done so by now. Krame at one point said, “…and I told you I have no intent. If you think I’m gonna come back afterwards and shake you down again, or I’m gonna publish it after, or I’m gonna do any of that sh-t. If you believe that, then don’t bother.” Krame said, “I am offering you something for sale. That’s all I am doing.”
The victim responded, “And if I don’t buy it, then what?” Krame responded, “If I can make some money selling it to somebody else, I will. I need the money.” Krame and the victim went back and forth abotu the situation for several minutes and discussed various aspects of their past. The victim pointed out that he flew Krame to Costa Rica the vacation as a friend and a guest. Krame continued to state that he would sell the photographs to someone else because he needs money. Krame said, “I’ve got nothing to scare me anymore.” The victim asked, ” how much money do you want.” Krame responded, “I wanted $100,000. I said I would … I’d close this out for $35k.” Krame and the victim continued to discuss the situation and their past for several minutes. Krame spoke about his illness and express that al the wanted the money for is so that he can leave his family something after he dies.
Krame at one point stated “no matter how mad I was at you. No matter how much I felt you hurt me. I just wasn’t that way. I just wasn’t going to do that for the sake of doing it. I wasn’t that spiteful.” The victim responded with, “and now you are.” To which Krame responded, “And now I am, because now I’m dying.” The victim again asked what will happen if he doesn’t pay for the photographs. Krame said he will do whatever the can to make as much money as he can. Krame again mentioned that there are 1.4 million porn sites in the US. The victim said that no one will pay fora photograph of him in the shower. Krame said that he still had not shown the images to anyone yet. Krame later said, “I’m in need of capital and I will raise it anyway that I can.” Krame later said, “if you don’t want to do it, I’ll do whatever I gotta do to make a couple dollars.” The victim asks how he can know that the photos will not be brought up again and Krame responded that once the situation is over the victim will never have to worry about being embarrassed again. Krame even offered to provide the victim with a written letter that the situation will be over. The victim said he will need time to decide what to do and Krame said, “make your decision, make it soon, let me know.” At that point, the conversation ended.
Arrest Warrant
Throughout Alan Krame’s written and verbal communication with the victim he made several malicious threats to release private nude images of the victim in order to subject them to disgrace, unless the victim paid Krame for said images. Krame used such phrases as “if my reputation was on the line…” and “I will have the satisfaction that a bad person (you) is going to be embarrassed, ridiculed and hopefully shunned by his peers.” And specifically mentioned that there are “1.4 million porn sites in the US.” Krame made such statements and threats maliciously in order to extort the victim for $100,000. Krame even went so far as to say that he wouldn’t “shake you down again” during the controlled phone call with the victim. Based on the information I obtained during my investigation, there is probable cause fo the arrest of Alan Krame for Extortion in violation of Florida State Statute 836.05, a second degree felony.
Alan Krame was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail around 7:30 p.m Tuesday. He remains locked up Wednesday afternoon. Bond has not yet been set.
