Van der Sloot Scheme

JUNE 10--As he plotted to extort money from the mother of Natalee Holloway, suspected murderer Joran van der Sloot insisted that a written contract be signed by both parties, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed today.

The document, sworn by Agent William Bryan, details van der Sloot's bid to shake down $250,000 from Beth Holloway Twitty, mother of the late Alabama teenager. Van der Sloot, 22, is the prime suspect in the May 2005 disappearance of Holloway, who went missing in Aruba during a high school graduation trip.

According to Bryan's affidavit, van der Sloot offered to disclose the whereabouts of Holloway's body in return for the six-figure payout. During a May 10 meeting at an Aruba hotel, van der Sloot and a Twitty representative "signed two copies of the agreement and took pictures of each other signing the agreement." Investigators contend that the legal formalities were part of an elaborate ruse by van der Sloot, who later guided Twitty's representative to a home where he claimed Holloway had been buried in the foundation.

Aruban building records, however, later revealed that the residence was not even under construction at the time of Holloway's disappearance. In a May 17 e-mail to Twitty's representative, "van der Sloot admitted...that he had lied about the location" of the teen's corpse. By then, the Dutch man had extracted $25,000 from Twitty, which resulted last week in him being named in a two-count extortion complaint.

The federal rap is the lesser of counts on the criminal docket of van der Sloot, who is expected to be charged with the May 30 murder of Stephany Flores, 21, who was found dead in a Peru hotel room registered to van der Sloot. (7 pages)