> Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal embarrassing, disgraceful or damaging information about a person to the public, family, spouse or associates unless money is paid to purchase silence. It is a form of extortion. Because the information is usually substantially true, it is not revealing the information that is criminal, but demanding money to withhold it.
It seems its considered blackmail but in the strictly legal sense I'm not sure. There's probably a law to cover that though, extortion?
Now if AMI wanted you or I to say those statements I’m not sure how valuable they’d be.
I would think that the demand for a public statement would qualify, however, I'm not a lawyer, and this case is unusual enough that I would not be confident in my personal interpretation of the law.
Blackmail for Theft: Conspiracy to commit Theft.
Blackmail for Fraud: Conspiracy to commit Fraud.