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Thomas George Paculis extortion try: Vultures circling over Paula Deen鈥檚 crisis?

Former Food Network star Paula Deen is fighting for her culinary empire after admitting to using the N-word. The FBI caught one alleged blackmailer on Friday who demanded $250,000.

The FBI on Friday arrested an alleged blackmailer in New York, drawing a line on what鈥檚 become a national pile-on of former Food Network superstar Paula Deen after she admitted in an April deposition that she had used the word 鈥渘igger鈥� in the past.

According to an FBI affidavit, Thomas George Paculis, a former restaurant owner in Ms. Deen鈥檚 hometown of Savannah, Ga., schemed to extort $250,000 from the silver-haired Southern icon in exchange for keeping mum about other potentially damaging allegations against her. Mr. Paculis, the FBI alleges, approached Ms. Deen鈥檚 lawyers five days after Deen鈥檚 use of the 鈥淣-word鈥� became public.

He wrote that 鈥渢he statements are true and damning enough 鈥�, [but] as always 鈥� there is a price for such confirmation.鈥�

For now, the extortion attempt may be the least of Deen鈥檚 concerns.

Nine sponsors have bailed on Deen, who has tearfully apologized, while also criticizing people telling 鈥渉urtful lies鈥� about her character.聽

鈥淚 am so distressed that people I鈥檝e never heard of are all of a sudden experts on who I am,鈥� she told NBC鈥檚 Matt Lauer on June 26. "I is what I is, and I鈥檓 not changing,鈥� she added, before asking viewers without sin to 鈥減lease pick up that stone and throw it so hard at my head that it kills me.鈥�

A national publisher also pulled the release of her new cookbook after the Food Network dropped her contract.

Maintaining she had only used the controversial word in the distant past, Deen also defended in the deposition a suggestion she made while planning a wedding in 2007, where she imagined a plantation-style affair complete with an all-black wait staff, acknowledging at the time that such a soiree would probably get her in trouble with the press.

The civil lawsuit in question alleges that Deen鈥檚 brother and business partner, Bubba Hiers, sexually harassed employees at Uncle Bubba鈥檚 Seafood and Oyster House, and that Deen, a co-owner, did nothing to stop it. The lawsuit is still ongoing, and no finding of guilt has been made.

To be sure, many of Deen鈥檚 fans flocked to her side, saying critics were wrong to paint her as a bigot and racist. But others said that Deen undermined herself by playing up the charms of Southern culture while failing to leave behind the uglier legacies of the former Confederacy.

In a defense of Deen, USA Today鈥檚 Rod Dreher suggests that the 60-something Deen 鈥渉olds to a moonlight-and-magnolia romanticism that is common among white Southerners of her generation,鈥� while admitting that, 鈥淵es, it鈥檚 now in questionable taste, and, yes, it reveals an impoverished moral imagination.鈥�

Deen鈥檚 own attempts at explaining her attitudes on race relations in the South have been at times awkward, but also suggest a more intellectual approach to how she views the legacy of racism and prejudice in the Deep South that shaped her.

In the fall of 2012, she told the New York Times鈥� Kim Severson that she believes race relations in the South are 鈥減retty good,鈥� but that 鈥渋t will take a long time for [prejudice] to completely be gone 鈥� if it鈥檒l ever be gone.鈥� Then she added, 鈥淲e鈥檙e all prejudiced against one thing or another. I think that black people feel the same prejudice that white people feel.鈥�

Such statements have apparently invited more than public admonition, the blackmail arrest suggests.

In a letter to the plaintiff鈥檚 lawyer in the workplace harassment lawsuit, Paculis, according to the affidavit, tried to double up his hush money potential.

"I have pushed the opposing firm to [give] me an amount of money, in cash to never been heard of again and to never utter Paula Deen's name in public or private ever again. Now the burning question is: do you want in?鈥�

Paculis is set to be arraigned in Savannah on July 16.