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A woman who was briefly involved with Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wesley Edens has been charged in a $1 billion blackmail scheme. The businessman’s rep said he “expects to testify” at the trial.
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Wesley Edens is at the center of an alleged extortion plot.
Prosecutors allege that the Milwaukee Bucks co-owner’s former lover Changli “Sophia” Luo engaged in a blackmail scheme to gain more than $1 billion from him.
Luo, 46, was charged with four counts, including Blackmail and Destruction, Alteration or Falsification of Records in Federal Investigations, according to the criminal complaint by the Southern District of New York obtained by E! News.
The filing, which refers to Edens as Victim-1, alleged that Luo threatened to publicize photos and videos of the billionaire, 64, having sex with her unless he paid her the lump sum of money.
Though Edens wasn’t specifically named in the complaint, his attorney spoke out about the businessman’s apparent connection to the case—and noted when he plans to publicly address the situation.
“Mr. Edens will be making no comment on the case as the indictment speaks for itself with respect to the charges against the defendant,” a spokesman for the businessman told The Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Edens expects to testify under oath at the upcoming trial.”
E! News has reached out to a representative for Edens as well as an attorney for Luo but has not heard back.
Edens—whose marriage to wife Lynn Edens ended in 2021—and Luo first met in November 2022, per the criminal complaint, when they engaged in “a handful” of in-person meetings until their relationship turned romantic following a sexual encounter in June 2023.
Following the intimate experience, she sent him a love letter he never responded to.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
“I never told you I love you, and tonight I want to tell you that,” Luo allegedly wrote, according to The Wall Street Journal citing prosecutors. “I have been restraining my feeling for you, as I do love you from the bottom of my heart!”
Near May 2024, Luo then accused Edens of having “misled” her in order to have sex with her, claiming she was “mentally incapacitated or mentally disabled” at the time of their sexual encounter. In text messages to Edens, Luo emphasized that her “home has cameras” and that everything Edens “did was caught on camera,” which Luo allegedly said she would expose to the “mass media” if Edens did not apologize.
Though Edens, who denied her allegations, entered into a settlement agreement with Luo a month later, paying her an initial sum of money to avoid any further harassment of Edens’ family, Luo further communicated with a mediator a list of demands—including $1.215 billion—in January 2025.
The filing alleged that if Edens refused to pay her the amount, then Luo would, among other threats, report criminal acts to “government offices.”
Luo has pleaded not guilty, per The Wall Street Journal, and is set to go to trial later this year.
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