Bronfman kidnapping

In 1975, Samuel Bronfman II, the 21-year-old heir to the Bronfman family trust then worth $750 million ($3.78 billion in 2021), was kidnapped after a gathering in Yorktown Heights, New York, and held for ransom. His kidnappers were caught and the ransom recovered, but the defendants' attorneys mounted a defense that argued Bronfman had been a co-conspirator, and the abductors were only convicted of extortion, not kidnapping. The defense attorney confessed in 2020 that he had been aware the defense was a lie and that Bronfman had been an innocent victim.