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FBI Asks TMZ to Drop Bitcoin Payment Plan in Nancy Guthrie Abduction Case
Harvey Levin proposed paying one bitcoin to track a sender claiming knowledge of Nancy Guthrie's kidnappers. The FBI later directed TMZ to halt the documentary effort.
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TMZ founder Harvey Levin said the FBI this week asked the outlet to stand down from a plan to pay one bitcoin to an email sender claiming information on the abduction of Nancy Guthrie. com reported that Levin made the proposal a month earlier after receiving repeated demands for the cryptocurrency, valued at about $60,000, in exchange for leads on the case.
Levin told interviewers that the sender used the same IP address across months of messages and claimed to possess a short video of the main suspect with Guthrie on what was likely her final day.
The sender also asserted that a turned-off phone holding the video sits in a safe location and that two people carried out the abduction from Guthrie's Arizona home on January 31. Levin said he placed six calls to the FBI outlining a documentary that would send the bitcoin and follow its trail.
He stated that agents initially promised a quick reply but went silent before calling back to request that TMZ abandon the project.
The FBI told Levin it believes it is making progress identifying the sender, nypost.com reported. TMZ responded to the latest note by asking the sender for a screen-grab of Guthrie to verify the claims and notified the FBI of the communication. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office both declined to comment.
Nancy Guthrie, the mother of Today host Savannah Guthrie, remains missing with no known suspects nearly five months after the disappearance.
