Documents say Cindy Crawford extortion target

updated 5:43 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2009

LOS ANGELES - A German man was charged Thursday with trying to extort $100,000 from former supermodel Cindy Crawford and her entrepreneur husband Rande Gerber over a photo of their daughter bound to a chair and gagged, authorities said.

Edis Kayalar, 26, has not yet been arrested. He was recently deported to Germany and believed to be in Stuttgart, authorities said.

He was charged with one count of extortion. If convicted, he could face up to two years in prison. It was not clear if he has an attorney in the U.S.

The photo was purportedly taken by the couple's former nanny and shows the girl, then 7, bound to a chair wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

The daughter told her parents, who were unaware of the photo, that the nanny took the picture as part of a "cops and robbers" game, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

The nanny, whose name wasn't released, has not been charged.

Kayalar allegedly took the photo from the nanny and repeatedly sought to get money from Crawford and Gerber, court documents said.

Kayalar threatened to sell or release the photo to the media if his demands weren't met, the affidavit said.

Crawford's spokeswoman Annett Wolf issued a statement saying, "Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford intend to pursue any and all available legal action against anyone who aids the perpetrator in the distribution or sale of the photograph of their daughter."

Crawford, who divorced actor Richard Gere in 1995, married Gerber in 1998. They have two children.

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