FIle this under: “Life Imitates Art.” Monty Python did a skit about this in the 70’s, wherein a bunch of mobsters tried to sell “protection” to the Commandant of an Royal Air Force Base. Extorting the U.S. Federal Government isn’t a thing that works, unless you’re simply *trying* to catch a federal indictment.

“I’ll return this property of the Government that I knowingly, and unlawfully, possess, if you’ll give me a different set of things that belong to the government” isn’t actually a negotiating technique; it’s a confession to two separate felonies, (at least).