‘Mastermind’ of plot to blackmail Michael Schumacher’s family arrested in Germany
5 July 2024, 13:16 | Updated: 5 July 2024, 13:42
The alleged mastermind of a plot to blackmail Michael Schumacher's family has been arrested in Germany.
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A 52-year-old man who worked as a security guard for the Schumacher family was detained in the town of Wülfrath in western Germany over the alleged plot, according to German media.
It comes two weeks after two other suspects - a 53-year-old father, named only as Yilmaz T, and his 30-year-old son - were arrested on June 19.
The duo allegedly had pictures of Schumacher after his 2013 skiing crash, which left the former F1 driver with life threatening injuries.
Schumacher, who has not been seen since the near fatal crash, was allegedly told by the pair that his family "would not want [the pictures] published".
Yilmaz T and his son allegedly demanded 15 million euros from the Schumacher family in return for not publishing the photos.
The security guard allegedly converted the private pictures of the family into digital form and passed them to the pair, and was offered a commission in return.
A German prosecutor confirmed to media that investigators had found evidence of the photos in the 52-year-old's apartment.
Police identified the 52-year-old during an investigation into the alleged blackmail plot.
German authorities were tipped off to the alleged plot by police in Switzerland, where Schumacher has been cared for at the family home since the accident.
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It comes two weeks after the Schumacher family were awarded a six-figure sum in damages after a fake interview was published by a German women’s magazine last year.
In April last year, Die Aktuelle published a fake interview with the F1 legend, who has not been seen since he suffered life-threatening injuries in the French Alps in 2013.
The magazine presented the 'interview' as Schumacher’s first since his skiing accident but it later emerged that the ‘interview’ had been created using AI.
The piece featured a photo of Schumacher smiling on their front cover, accompanied by a headline claiming it was Schumacher’s “first interview” since his injury.
The article claimed that Schumacher could stand "by myself and even slowly walk a few steps" and also alleged that the star’s family were all “very sad” about his accident.
While the article featured no byline, an anonymous author later confirmed that the interview had been generated using AI.
The Schumacher family initiated legal action against the magazine’s publisher, Funke Mediengruppe, over the article.
