TMZ.com Paid $165,000 For O.J. Tape

Memorabilia dealer Thomas Riccio scored the checkbook journalism windfall of a lifetime from TMZ.com last September, days after Simpson and a small posse confronted two businessmen inside the Palace Station Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The tape, which Riccio turned over to prosecutors after selling a copy to TMZ, captured the loud encounter between Simpson and company...and Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong, the collectibles dealers whom the former athlete accused of stealing (and trying to sell) some of his personal belongings.
Riccio signed a TMZ contract containing a confidentiality clause barring him from disclosing details of the financial transaction, presumably so that future "sources" don't use the $165,000 payoff as a template in their negotiations with the site, which is co-owned by Time/Warner's AOL and Telepictures units. TMZ is apparently the only Time/Warner entity that is allowed to pay for stories or tips (that corporate roster includes CNN, magazines like Time, People, and Sports Illustrated, and The Smoking Gun website which, ironically, posted the story originally).
more HERE
Riccio on Larry King Live HERE