Investigators reveal details Father and son wanted to blackmail Michael Schumacher's family
Criminals tried to blackmail the family of former Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher. Investigators are now speaking out and giving initial details.
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- Two arrests have already been made in Germany following an extortion attempt against the family of Michael Schumacher.
- The alleged blackmailers demanded 15 million euros and threatened to publish sensitive data.
- The impetus for the investigations came from the Swiss authorities.
The family of former Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher was to be blackmailed. The public prosecutor's office in Wuppertal confirmed a corresponding report by "Bild", which was also picked up by blue News.
The investigators have now revealed the first details of the case. According to the report, the alleged blackmailers claimed to employees of the family that they had files that the family would be interested in not publishing.
They allegedly demanded a payment of 15 million euros (14.4 million Swiss francs): Otherwise, the defendants threatened, they would publish the data on the Darknet. They had even sent some files to the family as proof.
Not clever enough on the darknet
However, as the public prosecutor's office explained, the alleged perpetrators were not able to conceal their tracks on the Darknet. The technical investigations quickly led to two men, aged 53 and 30, who were operating from Wuppertal.
They were father and son: both were currently on probation in another case. They were arrested in Gross-Gerau in the German state of Hesse.
First clues from Switzerland
The investigation was originally initiated by the Lausanne public prosecutor's office. The family of the record Formula 1 world champion, who was seriously injured in a skiing accident at the end of 2013, has lived in the canton of Vaud for many years.
In the meantime, another woman has been arrested in the case in the canton of Thurgau. According to Bild, this is said to be the wife of the accused 30-year-old. The mother of an infant is at large again.