He could've paid some guy to keep quiet and explained to his wife why two million is missing in private.
Blackmail/Extortion is lucrative enough, no need to make it more so.
Actually, interesting you guys mention that because I just read an article in USA Today and some people recommend NOT going to the police when you're being blackmailed. There's some situations that it's better to either pay the person and let the matter go away OR hire a private detective or two to track down who's blackmailing you and let them now how serious a crime that is (and what they could be punished for in the legal system.)
Oftentimes many people who are doing the blackmail don't seem to realize how serious a crime it's consider and what kind of punishment they can face should the matter get turned over to the police. Faced with this knowledge, they'll give up whatever "material" they have and just quietly disappear.
Either way, I just hope I'm never in a situation where I have to deal with something like that.