Germany Public prosecutor: Alleged blackmail of Schumacher family

Criminals are said to have tried to blackmail the family of former German Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher. This was announced by the public prosecutor's office in Wuppertal, which is investigating the case.

A spokesperson for the Wuppertal public prosecutor's office said on Monday that the perpetrators had claimed to employees of the family that they had files that the family would be interested in not publishing. They had demanded a payment in the millions - otherwise they would publish the data on the darknet. The perpetrators had sent some files to the family as proof.

Using "technical measures", it was possible to determine that the suspected blackmailers had acted from Wuppertal (North Rhine-Westphalia). Two men from Wuppertal, aged 53 and 30, were arrested as suspects - father and son. Both are currently on probation in another case.

The two main suspects were arrested on June 19 in a supermarket parking lot in Gross-Gerau in Hesse and are currently in custody.

Investigators had already announced at the end of last week that arrests had been made in connection with an extortion case "to the detriment of a celebrity". However, the investigators did not initially name the celebrity. Bild" had first reported on an attempted blackmail of the Schumacher family.

The record Formula 1 world champion was seriously injured in a skiing accident at the end of 2013. He has not appeared in public since then. The family has lived in the canton of Vaud for many years.