- Three men were arrested earlier this year after an alleged £12.5 million blackmail scheme
- A former security guard is said to have sold private photos of Schumacher to the others
- The two then allegedly threatened to post the photos on the dark web
Three men have been charged in Germany after being arrested earlier this year over an alleged £12.5million blackmail attempt against Michael Schumacher.
Prosecutors said the 53-year-old prime suspect threatened to release personal videos and photos and demanded a princely sum from the Formula 1 legend’s family.
Three suspects have been arrested this year. In June, bouncer Yilmaz T, 53, and his 30-year-old son from Wuppertal were arrested after they reportedly claimed to have sensitive files containing images of the F1 legend following his near-fatal skiing accident in 2013.
In July, the Schumacher family’s former security guard, also 53, was arrested after “hatching” the plot.
Schumacher, 55, has not been seen in public since his accident in 2013, which left him in a coma for almost six months and left him with severe bleeding and bruising on his brain.
Three men have been charged after being arrested in an alleged £12.5million blackmail plot against Michael Schmacher and his family
The seven-time world champion has not been seen in public since suffering a serious brain injury in the brutal skiing accident in the French Alps
Suspects Yilmaz T, 53 (pictured), and his 30-year-old son are said to have claimed they had sensitive files containing images of the Formula 1 legend following his near-fatal skiing accident in 2013
Yilmaz T, the main suspect, is accused of calling the Schumacher family several times this summer to demand money from them. He allegedly threatened to publish the sensitive images on the ‘dark web’ otherwise.
He is accused of attempted blackmail and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, although this sentence may be reduced because the attempt was not carried out. His son is accused of complicity in blackmail.
The 30-year-old son is said to have created an untraceable email address from which photos were sent to the family as proof of blackmail.
Meanwhile, the family’s former security guard is suspected of converting the photos into digital form and selling them to Yilmaz T and his son for a “six-figure” sum.
The two men then handed over “individual files” to the family to prove they had access to documents about the Formula 1 star as part of their threat, investigators allege.
A senior prosecutor in Wuppertal confirmed to German media that a preliminary evaluation of the data sets obtained during the search of the bouncer’s apartment contained “photographs relating to the private life of the Schumacher family.”
German investigators received a tip about the blackmail attempt from authorities in Switzerland, where Schumacher has been receiving care at his parents’ home since the accident.
Prosecutors said “technical measures” made it possible to trace the alleged blackmailers to Wuppertal.
Suspects threatened to release private photos taken after his 2013 crash if the family did not pay £12.5 million
The two suspects, who were still in custody in a separate case, were arrested by police on June 19 in a supermarket parking lot in Gross-Gerau, south of Frankfurt.
Authorities searched eight properties and the two men’s primary residences, seizing “multiple data storage devices.”