Seagal to Take On the Mob

If you can follow this convoluted tale of crappy intrigue, you have a longer attention span than I do:

A suspect in the ongoing Seagal-Mafia extortion case claims Seagal–not a mafioso thug, as originally believed–ordered the recent threats against a Los Angeles Times reporter.

Alexander Proctor is the man charged with intimidating Anita Busch, the journalist who was digging into charges that a Mafia associate (and Seagal’s onetime producing partner) was extorting money from the fading action hero. Proctor, who remains jailed without bail, told an FBI informant that Seagal was behind the threat, according to court documents released Friday.

Proctor, a 59-year-old ex-con, says in the documents that the Out for Justice star wanted to dole out his own brand of justice by asking Anthony Pellicano, a well-known Hollywood P.I., to have someone threaten Busch. Seagal allegedly had two reasons to target Busch: to garner sympathy for himself and to make his ex-partner, Julius Nasso, look bad. Proctor was allegedly hired to carry out said threat.

“He wanted to make it look like the Italians were putting the hit on her, so it wouldn’t reflect on Seagal,” Proctor told the informant, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by an FBI agent assigned to the case. (Excerpts from the document are available at The Smoking Gun Website.) [E! online]

It’s very hard to tell who is doing what to whom – far too messy to be a script.

Based upon his bio, Seagal would appear to be not unfamiliar with manicuring the truth (“Seagal claims not only to have been involved in security operations for the deposed Shah of Iran, but to have worked security for Bishop Tutu and the late Anwar Sadat. Accounts of his CIA involvement have been disputed over the years.”)