The leaked documents reportedly came from a former security guard who worked for the family.
German justice on Wednesday requested the referral to court of three suspects as part of a blackmail attempt about the family of former Formula 1 champion, Michael Schumacher.
A 53-year-old father and his 30-year-old son, residing in Wuppertal (west of Germany), are accused of having tried to defraud the racing driver’s family 15 million euros by threatening them with publishing on the darknetthe hidden and opaque side of the web, data that it did not wish to see disseminated, according to a press release from the prosecution. This data, the father would have bought it “for a 5-figure amount” (so between 10,000 and 99,000 euros) from a former family security guard of Michael Schumacher, it is added. The former security guard is accused of having copied this data without permission “at the latest when he leaves his post in March 2021”. These were particularly sensitive images since they showed Michael Schumacher before and after his skiing accident in 2013.
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At the end of 2013, in the French winter sports resort of Méribel, the seven-time F1 champion suffered a serious head injury. He spent almost six months in an induced coma and has since been treated at his home in Switzerland and kept away from the media. On June 3 and the days that followed, the eldest of the blackmailer duo called a family employee several times to extort the 15 million euros from her.
The latter would have requested proof that this data was indeed in its possession, which would have led to the blackmailer to call his son for help to send data from a technically untraceable email address. The eldest of the blackmailers risks between one and fifteen years in prison. His son, accused of complicity, risks a lesser sentence and is free.
The former security agent of the Schumacher family must answer to two counts: complicity in an attempted blackmail on the one hand, and invasion of privacy, on the other hand. He faces a “severe” prison sentence, according to the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office, whose request for referral to trial must still be approved by the court judge.
