The family of former racing driver Michael Schumacher was blackmailed with photos from the family’s private life. This was the result of the first evaluation of the data sets found on the suspects, as the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday. This is “an initial interim result”. The investigation is ongoing.
The public prosecutor’s office did not want to provide any further information for tactical reasons. Information about the accused, such as their previous convictions, was also not possible due to their personal rights.
Two men are said to have tried to extort millions from the family of the former Formula 1 racing driver. The suspects, who are said to be father and son, were arrested by the Hessian police on June 19 in a supermarket parking lot in Groß-Gerau.
Former bouncer under suspicion
Arrest warrants had previously been issued by the Wuppertal District Court. The suspects are in custody. According to unconfirmed information from the “Südkurier”, the older man is said to be a bouncer who is said to have worked in a Konstanz discotheque for years.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the suspects told family employees that they had files that the family might be interested in not publishing. According to the information, they threatened to publish them on the darknet.
To prevent this, they demanded a payment of millions from the family. The two men, aged 30 and 53, also sent individual files to the family to prove ownership of the files.
