Milwaukee Bucks co-owner and private equity investor Wesley Edens has been revealed as the man at the center of an alleged blackmail and extortion plot.
The saga allegedly began in 2022 when entrepreneur Changli “Sophia” Luo sent a LinkedIn message to Edens, a recently divorced billionaire, the Wall Street Journal reports. The exchange led to a series of meetings, culminating in the pair having sex during their third meetup at Luo’s Manhattan apartment in June 2023.
Prosecutors allege that Luo, 46, tried to extort more than $1 billion from 64-year-old Edens, threatening to release videos and photos of the pair having sex.
She is charged on four counts including blackmail and destruction of records, and was released on a $500,000 bail under home detention.
Changli 'Sophia' Luo in a still from a One World Initiative Video.
Changli “Sophia” Luo first sent a LinkedIn message to Edens, a recently divorced billionaire, in 2022.OWI
Luo may have initially approached Edens professionally. Luo founded One World Initiative Advocacy, a Manhattan-based nonprofit. The company’s website is not active, but their LinkedIn about section says it “features interviews with citizens and leaders from all fields of human endeavor who share our belief in the urgent need for increased cross-border dialog and international collaboration.”
Edens runs Fortress Investment Group and built the Brightline private rail line in Florida. At the time of Luo reaching out, he also owned a stake in English soccer club Aston Villa.
After Luo and Edens had sex in June of 2023, prosecutors say she sent him a letter telling him she loved him.
“I never told you I love you, and tonight I want to tell you that, I have been restraining my feeling for you, as I do love you from the bottom of my heart!” she wrote.
But Edens never responded to the note, and by November 2023, Luo’s tone had shifted to threats, prosecutors said.
Luo’s threats against Edens continued for months, prosecutors said. She allegedly reached out to Edens’s family members, told him she would approach investors, and pledged to destroy him.
Mallory Edens and Wes Edens, co-owner of Milwaukee Bucks, attend Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks basketball game.
Wes Edens, co-owner of Milwaukee Bucks, with his daughter Mallory Edens at a Lakers v Bucks game at the Staples Center on March 6, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.Kevork S. Djansezian/Getty Images
Prosecutors allege that in November 2023 Luo used a fake name to gain access to the doctor’s office where Edens’s then-girlfriend and now-wife worked, to tell her that she had had sex with Edens.
In the conversation she allegedly described Edens as a “terrible person.” The threats continued, with Luo also reaching out to Edens’ first wife.
Prosecutors say Luo wrote to Eden, alleging that he had sex with her while she was mentally incapacitated.
“She told him that her ‘home has cameras,’ and that everything Edens ‘did was caught on camera.’ She would go to the media, she said, unless he apologized.
“‘I am sure your family and business partners will learn about you and your misdeeds from these interviews and will provide exposure that will taint your record forever,’ she wrote,” the Journal reported.
Edens agreed to mediation with Luo, reportedly offering her over $6 million to settle the matter, while not admitting any wrongdoing.
But after learning of a health condition that Luo allegedly blamed Edens for, she refused the settlement and demanded more.
Prosecutors say that Luo contended that Edens had given her a cancer-causing strain of HPV, and asked for $1.25 billion. She then hired a lawyer for the first time, who allegedly told Edens that “she would release compromising photos and would ‘destroy’ Edens if he didn’t take ‘responsibility,’” the Journal reported.
Wes Edens at Sun Valley
A rep for Edens confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that he was the victim named in court papers.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Luo’s defense counsel, a different lawyer, argued in court last month that she was being “unfairly prosecuted for aggressive posturing made by a former lawyer during settlement talks over the sexual encounter.”
Edens, who was not named in the court filings, but has confirmed he is the other party, approached U.S. prosecutors about Luo’s threats in early 2025.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Edens for comment but there was no immediate response.
When Luo’s apartment was searched by FBI agents in May of 2025, two phones were found; one in her laundry basket and the other in a box of sanitary pads. One of the phones contained pornagraphic images and videos of Edens’ head on another man’s body.
Luo was arrested at JFK Airport in June 2025, attempting to board a flight to China.