NASHVILLE (AP) - A Franklin man has been convicted in an extortion and wire fraud scheme stemming from the 2012 presidential election and Republican Mitt Romney's tax returns.
The U.S Justice Department says 37-year-old Michael Mancil Brown was found guilty Thursday by a federal jury in Nashville. A news release from the agency said Brown was convicted of six counts of wire fraud and six counts of using facilities of interstate commerce to commit extortion.
A sentencing hearing will likely be in August.
The release said the scheme involved a letter delivered to PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm in Franklin, demanding $1 million worth of digital currency Bitcoin to prevent release of Romney's tax documents. The letter also invited interested parties who wanted the documents to be released to contribute $1 million to another Bitcoin account.