Former racing driver - Michael Schumacher's family was to be blackmailed - man arrested
In the case of the attempted extortion of Michael Schumacher's family, the police have arrested a suspect. He is a 52-year-old man who had worked as a security guard for the family, stated Oberstaatsanwalt Wolf-Tilman Baumert in Wuppertal. The man was arrested in Wülfrath near Wuppertal on Thursday. A large number of other evidence was secured during the arrest. These will now be evaluated.
The investigators had arrested the two alleged extorters of the family about two weeks ago. According to the prosecution, the 53-year-old man and his 30-year-old son had private photos of the Schumacher family. The discovered photo files concerned the private sphere of the Schumacher family.
Millions demanded from Michael Schumacher's family
During the investigation into where the two obtained the photos from the private life and immediate environment of the family, they eventually came across the 52-year-old. Michael Schumacher had been severely injured in a skiing accident at the end of 2013 and has not appeared publicly since.
The perpetrators had claimed to have data in their possession that the family might be interested in not being made public. They were reportedly demanding a payment in millions – otherwise, they would make the data public in the Darknet. As evidence, they had sent some files to the family.
The investigation was initiated based on a tip from the criminal prosecution authorities in Switzerland and was originally being conducted by the Staatsanwaltschaft Kassel. Through "technical measures," the investigators were able to determine, according to their information, that the alleged extorters were operating from Wuppertal. The two 53 and 30-year-old suspects were arrested on June 19 on a supermarket parking lot in Groß-Gerau, Hesse. The two are known to the police in another matter, according to the investigators.
It is not the first attempt to extort the family of the former racing driver. In 2017, the Reutlingen Amtsgericht in Baden-Württemberg sentenced a 25-year-old man because he had tried to extort Corinna Schumacher for 900,000 Euro. He had threatened that otherwise, something would happen to the children. The man was sentenced to a probation period of 21 months.
- The blackmailer, who was the 52-year-old former security guard for Michael Schumacher's family, was arrested in Wülfrath near Wuppertal, as revealed by Oberstaatsanwalt Wolf-Tilman Baumert in Wuppertal.
- The Public prosecutor's office in Kassel, originally handling the investigation, discovered that the blackmailers, the 53-year-old man and his 30-year-old son, were operating from Wuppertal through "technical measures."
- The investigation into the attempted extortion of Michael Schumacher's family had ties to Wuppertal, as it was initiated based on a tip from the criminal prosecution authorities in Switzerland, leading to the arrest of the suspects in the city.
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