What's the difference between extortion and ransom?

Extortion


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of extorting; the act or practice of wresting anything from a person by force, by threats, or by any undue exercise of power; undue exaction; overcharge.
  • (n.) The offense committed by an officer who corruptly claims and takes, as his fee, money, or other thing of value, that is not due, or more than is due, or before it is due.
  • (n.) That which is extorted or exacted by force.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But with a civil war raging and no one to protect them, most migrants are at risk of kidnap, extortion and forced labour.
  • (2) As the gangs fragmented, many increasingly focused on extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking.
  • (3) The prize catch was his sister, Patrizia Messina Denaro, 43, accused of running the effort to channel extorted cash to fuel her brother's life on the run.
  • (4) And with the cartels come other nightmares: kidnapping, extortion, contract killers and people trafficking.
  • (5) "There are no social programmes or prevention projects and, OK, there are fewer murders, but delinquency, extortion and kidnappings are up.
  • (6) The government will need to continue with extra-judicial killings, commonly called crossfire, until terrorist activities and extortion are uprooted."
  • (7) They prey on the population, kidnapping and extorting in cahoots with criminal gangs, according to multiple complaints filed to the human rights commission.
  • (8) Mexican drug cartels have been waging an increasingly bloody war to control smuggling routes, the local drug market and extortion rackets, including shakedowns of migrants seeking to reach the United States.
  • (9) The official, who refused to be quoted by name, said Barankov was accused of summoning random people to his office, telling them they were being investigated and extorting bribes to close non-existent cases.
  • (10) But they are also brutal killers and methamphetamine dealers who extort everyone from big corporations to street vendors throughout Michoácan, according to residents and government officials.
  • (11) The latest film sees Bond travel from Mexico to the Sahara desert, Italy and the Austrian Alps in pursuit of SPECTRE – an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – the sinister organisation intent on world domination.
  • (12) Sumo wrestling , already suffering a tarnished reputation, is facing its greatest scandal in years amid revelations of extortion, illegal gambling and ties with the criminal underworld.
  • (13) Despite an increase in police crackdowns, yakuza membership is steadily rising amid richer pickings from extortion, prostitution, drug smuggling, property deals and even stock market deals as Japan's economy emerges from its "lost decade" of recession.
  • (14) Officials from the defence ministry, run by Rajapaksa's brother, Gotabhaya, have said many of the abductions since the end of the conflict were of "underworld characters involved in organised crime, drug trade, extortion, kidnapping and such antisocial activities".
  • (15) Meanwhile, at the top of the tree, managers of the maquiladoras – faced with recession and competition from Asia – needed fewer workers, spewing their surplus humanity (which flocked here from all over Mexico) into the new narco-economy of "opportunities" for murder, extortion and kidnapping.
  • (16) He told the New York Times : "How is this not extortion?
  • (17) "From what I know of the Nigerian police, they look for every opportunity to extort money.
  • (18) With time, the focus of Shaltai-Boltai’s activities shifted from political statement to straight extortion.
  • (19) Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, warned in May last year that it risked simply creating better-trained criminals – or police who "would be able to extort more effectively".
  • (20) It said that some of the information that formed the basis of the allegations against it “has been gathered as a result of criminal activity including extortion”.

Ransom


Definition:

  • (n.) The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration; redemption; as, prisoners hopeless of ransom.
  • (n.) The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit.
  • (n.) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
  • (n.) To redeem from captivity, servitude, punishment, or forfeit, by paying a price; to buy out of servitude or penalty; to rescue; to deliver; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.
  • (n.) To exact a ransom for, or a payment on.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The mother in Arthur Ransome's children's classic, Swallows and Amazons, is something of a cipher, but her inability to make basic decisions does mean she receives one of the finest telegrams in all literature.
  • (2) According to Ghazian, the regime cannot easily silence Ahmadinejad, because "he has two important assets: one is that he has the potential to act unexpectedly and, secondly, he has taken his opponents ransom by threatening to reveal their secrets to public."
  • (3) Professionals say the payment of ransoms by countries whose nationals are kidnapped encourages further kidnappings as they represent a guaranteed cash return.
  • (4) Other transactions are more blatantly criminal: Eritreans, who with Syrians and Afghans make up the majority of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, are often driven “for free” from Khartoum in Sudan to Ajdabiya on the Libyan coast, where they are locked up and tortured until relatives pay a ransom.
  • (5) At the end of 2010, AQIM had reportedly received €50m worth of ransom money since 2003, with each western hostage worth around €2.5m to the countries that paid up.
  • (6) A new criminal offence will be created to make it illegal for British insurance companies to provide cover for terrorist ransom payments.
  • (7) The mining giants have made enormous profits at the expense of Mirarr traditional lands,” he said, “and they are now holding the word heritage-listed area to ransom.
  • (8) He told delegates: "It cannot be right that 3,000 people should be able to hold the city to ransom, stop people getting to work and jeopardise the economic recovery when the measures we are taking to reform ticket offices are an inevitable consequence of the success of the automatic Oyster [smart card] system ... and when we are able to make these changes with no compulsory redundancies, with no loss of earnings and with no station unstaffed at any time.
  • (9) Ransome-Kuti made her name as an activist with a mass protest against policies that increased prices for market women.
  • (10) As "Darien", it was the lookout for Ransome's  boat‑loving kids.
  • (11) The official Anadolu news agency reported that no ransom had been paid and "no conditions were accepted in return for their release".
  • (12) Downing Street believed it had secured an agreement last year during the UK's presidency of the G8 which meant the group's members would not pay ransoms to terrorist kidnappers.
  • (13) As for the name, we have already pointed out the possibility that he could have used different identities.” But Calantropo said that while the accused man had indeed been briefly in touch with actual smugglers, he did so to ensure the release of three friends held for ransom by smugglers.
  • (14) What the State Department admitted today was the dictionary definition of a ransom payment and a complete contradiction of what they were saying just two weeks ago.
  • (15) (via @ dylanbyers ) Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) White House statement on meeting somewhat tough: "we will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government" October 14, 2013 John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) So...why even have a meeting?
  • (16) The US refuses to pay ransom for hostages, and, Diane Foley said, even threatened to prosecute the Foley family for raising money to do so, while European countries do pay.
  • (17) He said the pair's freedom was due in large part to the "professionalism" of Foreign Office officials and backed the UK's stance of not engaging in ransom talks.
  • (18) An exasperated David Cameron lectured fellow world leaders on Thursday night telling them not to succumb to Islamic State's ransom demands, as he warned at the Nato summit in Wales that such payouts merely funded more terrorism against the west.
  • (19) Sunday's attack in Tripoli targeted the Islamist lawmakers and officials Hifter blames for allowing extremists to hold the country to ransom, his spokesman Mohammed al-Hegazi told Libyan television.
  • (20) George Christopoulos, his press secretary, and Isaac Ransom, his deputy, resigned "on principle", according to CBC News.