Schumacher blackmail: suspected accomplice arrested
In the course of the attempted extortion of the Michael Schumacher family, another arrest has been made. It is believed to be a man who worked for the family. Potential evidence could now provide further insights into his role.
In the case of the attempted extortion of the family of the former Formula-1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, the police have arrested a suspected accomplice. He is a 52-year-old man who had worked as a security guard for the family, said Senior Public Prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert in Wuppertal. The man was arrested in Wülfrath near Wuppertal. A large number of further evidence was secured at the scene. This will now be evaluated.
The investigators had only recently arrested the two alleged extortionists of the family. According to the public prosecutor, the 53-year-old man and his 30-year-old son had private photos of the family. The discovered photo data concerned the private sphere of the Schumacher 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 man. Michael Schumacher had sustained severe injuries in a skiing accident at the end of 2013. Since then, he has not appeared in public.
The perpetrators had claimed to have data belonging to employees of the family, the non-disclosure of which the family was allegedly interested in. They had demanded a sum in the millions - otherwise, they would publish the data on the Darknet. As evidence, they had sent some data to the family.
Further arrested men are known to the police
The investigation was initiated based on a tip from the criminal investigation authorities in Switzerland and was originally being conducted by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Kassel. Through "technical measures", the investigators were able to determine, according to their information, that the alleged extortionists were operating from Wuppertal. The two 53 and 30-year-old suspects were arrested on June 19th at a supermarket car park in the Hessian Groß-Gerau. The two are also known to the police: They are reportedly under investigation in another matter.
It is not the first attempt to extort the family of the former racing driver. In 2017, the Reutlingen Magistrates' Court in Baden-Württemberg sentenced a 25-year-old man for attempting to extort €900,000 from Corinna Schumacher. He had threatened that something would happen to the children otherwise. The man was sentenced to a probation order of 21 months.
The recent arrest of a suspected accomplice in the Blackmail case against Michael Schumacher's family suggests international implications, as it's rumored he had connections outside of Germany. Furthermore, this new discoveries could potentially shed light on the role of Michael Schumacher's former security guard in the international Blackmail attempt.
