A man has been charged with demanding $25,000 from rapper Lil’ Kim to return a necklace that went missing from her luggage at the airport.
John Acheson of New Rochelle was charged with attempted grand larceny, attempted grand larceny by extortion and attempted coercion, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement Monday.
The 31-year-old was being held Monday pending arraignment, the DA said, and was unavailable for comment. There was no home telephone listing for Acheson, who could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
Lil’ Kim, whose real name is Kimberly Jones, was heading to Los Angeles on June 20 from John F. Kennedy International Airport. She had a carry-on bag containing about $250,000 worth of jewelry, including her signature diamond-encrusted Queen Bee necklace. An error at the airline check-in counter caused the carry-on bag to get mixed in with the rest of the rapper’s luggage.
When the bag was recovered, the necklace and other pieces were missing, police said. A United Airlines worker found the jewelry last week, wrapped inside a rag in an employee locker room, said the 27-year-old rapper’s attorney, Mel Sachs.
The district attorney said Acheson contacted Lil’ Kim’s attorney last week, saying he had the necklace and demanding money for its return. He said Acheson turned himself in to authorities Monday.
The investigation of the jewelry’s disappearance was continuing, said officials for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs area airports.
