UCMJ Article 127: Extortion

Extortion is communicating a threat to another person with the intent to unlawfully obtain something of value, or an acquittance, advantage, or immunity. The offense is complete when the threat is communicated with that intent; the victim does not have to pay or comply. The maximum is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and 3 years of confinement.

A threat plus intent to gain

10 U.S.C. § 927: “Any person subject to this chapter who communicates threats to another person with the intention thereby to obtain anything of value or any acquittance, advantage, or immunity is guilty of extortion.”

The Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 76.b, sets two elements: the accused communicated a certain threat to another, and the accused intended to unlawfully obtain something of value, or any acquittance, advantage, or immunity.

Complete on communication

“Extortion is complete upon communication of the threat with the requisite intent. The actual or probable success of the extortion need not be proved” (¶ 76.c(1)). A demand the victim ignores is still extortion.

The threat may be communicated by any means, “but must be received by the intended victim” (¶ 76.c(2)). A threat that never reaches the victim does not complete the offense.

Five kinds of threat

Under ¶ 76.c(2), the threat may be:

1. to do any unlawful injury to the person or property of the person threatened, or of a family member or anyone else held dear to that person;
2. to accuse any of them of a crime;
3. to expose or impute any deformity or disgrace to any of them;
4. to expose any secret affecting any of them; or
5. “to do any other harm.”

The threat need not be of violence. A threat to reveal a secret, or to report someone for a crime, can be extortion if made to obtain value, an acquittance, an advantage, or immunity.

Acquittance, advantage, immunity

• An acquittance is “a release or discharge from an obligation” (¶ 76.c(3)). For example, a threat used to get a debt forgiven seeks an acquittance.
• The advantage or immunity sought should be described in the specification unless clear from the circumstances (¶ 76.c(4)).
• “An intent to make a person do an act against that person’s will is not, by itself, sufficient to constitute extortion.” The intent must be to obtain something of value, an acquittance, an advantage, or an immunity.

Up to 3 years

Under ¶ 76.d, the maximum is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 3 years.

Extortion, threats, and robbery

A wrongful threat to injure the person, property, or reputation of another, without the aim of obtaining anything, is communicating a threat under Article 115. Taking property from the person or presence of another, against the person’s will, by force, violence, or fear, is robbery under Article 122; extortion requires no taking at all.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. § 927, Article 127, Extortion (Cornell LII)
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, ¶ 76

General information about military law, not legal advice for any individual case.