Jason White, Cyberstalking, California 2024

A Riverside County art dealer has been arrested for allegedly stalking, harassing, and attempting to extort several art world professionals.

Jason White, 43, of Temecula, was arrested this morning without incident by special agents with the FBI.

The arrest comes after federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint that charges White with stalking, a crime that carries a potential penalty of five years in federal prison.

White is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

According to the complaint, White engaged in a stalking and extortion scheme that targeted several art world professionals with whom he had had business relationships.

When those business relationships ended, White posted derogatory information about his former associates on websites he had created, and then used threatening emails to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for taking the websites down.

The complaint alleges that White repeatedly made extortionate demands through harassing text messages and emails, and when his demands were not met, he threatened violence.

White targeted his former employer, an art publisher, as well as his supervisor at the art publisher’s company.

According to the complaint, White created derogatory websites in the art publisher’s name and sent threatening text messages to the art publisher, the publisher’s son, and his former supervisor.

White allegedly wrote, ‘it will be very unfortunate if something was to happen to him,’ and sent pictures of the child to the victim with comments such as ‘it will be very unfortunate if something was to happen to him.’

White allegedly threatened to find the art publisher’s former supervisor’s family and make her pay with ‘fear, anguish, and pain.’

White continued to demand payment in exchange for taking down the websites he had created, and made it known to these victims that their business reputation would be ruined and that his websites would forever show up anytime anyone searched for their name on the internet.

White allegedly went to the Facebook page of a well-known artist represented by the art publisher and posted a picture of himself, along with a statement that he was focusing on the artist’s wife and child.

White allegedly wrote that he would be waiting in the bushes to ‘knee cap a child.’

Through the Facebook message, White told the artist, ‘your children are my end game.’

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime.

Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

The case against White is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Art Crime Team.

Defendant: Jason White

Criminal Charges: Stalking

City and State: Los Angeles, California

Date: March 14, 2024

Sentence: None (awaiting trial)

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