Publicist who tried to blackmail Tom Cruise found dead

A man who tried to extort money from Tom Cruise with stolen photos of the star's Italian wedding to actress Katie Holmes has been found dead, US authorities said on Saturday.

David Hans Schmidt, 47, "was found dead in his home around 3 p.m. (2100 GMT) Friday" in Phoenix, Arizona, said Lieutenant Anthony Lopez, spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.

The Arizona Republic reported on its website that Schmidt had committed suicide, quoting his brother who said the publicist had suffered from depression.

In July, Schmidt was arrested by the FBI after he tried to sell Cruise pictures from the couple's 2006 wedding for at least one million dollars.

Schmidt, who admitted to the extortion charge in a plea deal, has been under home arrest since last month. Police went to his house after noticing the tracking device on his ankle had not moved.

He was due to appear for formal sentencing in a federal court on October 11.

Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields said previously Schmidt had approached the actor's representatives trying to sell them "thousands of pictures" from the couple's wedding for "seven figures," meaning at least one million dollars.

The lawyer said Cruise "is not personally involved in this".

According to "The Smoking Gun," the Internet website that broke the story, Schmidt is known as the "Sultan of Sleaze" for his Arizona-based business dealing in celebrity sex tapes.

Cruise and Holmes were married November 18, 2006 in a medieval castle in Bracciano, near Rome. Photos of the wedding were sold exclusively to three celebrity magazines.