Michael Schumacher’s blackmail trial began.
There is not much information about Michael Schumacher’s health. EPA / AOP
- Three men extorted 15 million euros from Michael Schumacher’s family.
- The main accused told the trial on Tuesday how the operation was carried out.
In the German city of Wuppertal, a trial started on Tuesday that is also attracting international attention, when the men who blackmailed the family of former formula legend Michael Schumacher are in court.
An attempt was made to extort 15 million euros from Schumacher’s family. According to the prosecutor, the defendants were in possession of the seven-time world champion’s health information as well as 1,500 pictures and 200 videos. They were stored with four memory sticks and two hard drives, one of which is missing.
The main accused in the case is Yilmaz T. a man presented under a pseudonym with a previous criminal history.
In addition to him, his son is accused of extortion Daniel L and the former bodyguard of the Schumacher family Markus Frichte.
The trio laughed at the beginning of the trial, but the main accused surprised those present.
– I take responsibility for this. I did stupidly, Yilmaz T. said According to Bild and basically confessed to the crime.
After this, he turned to Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna Schumacher’s lawyer in the courtroom.
– Tell him I’m very sorry.
Frichte and two other men threatened to publish sensitive information about Schumacher if they did not get the 15 million euros they wanted. Frichte was on the payroll of the Schumacher family between 2013 and 2021.
This is how the blackmail proceeded
Yilmaz T. received his first hard drive in 2021 from Frichte.
He got another hard drive half a year later. It contained private photos and videos of Schumacher.
– I copied the hard disks and put the information on four memory sticks, Yilmaz T. said at the session.
The trial revealed that Frichte had claimed that the hard drives had come into his possession from a nurse who had lost her job and was in need of money.
Frichte had then told Yilmaz T to look for people who could profit from the information financially. Yilmaz T. provided sensitive information to several people. In one case, a former bodyguard was offered two million euros for all the data. He refused after asking the same nurse from whom he got the hard drives.
In the end, Yilmaz T. ended up doing the extortion himself with the help of his son.
– I thought I could get some money from them, he said According to the news.
Yilmaz T. called Schumacher’s office in Switzerland from an unknown number and said that he has sensitive material about the seven-time world champion.
His son handled the data and technology arrangements for the crime. Daniel L. sent the office an email with some information about Schumacher attached. The purpose was to show that they have real documents.
Frichte himself did not speak at all on Tuesday. His lawyer read the man’s statement, in which Frichte denied creating or copying the information without the consent of Schumacher’s family.
According to him, Corinna Schumacher had asked the bodyguard to digitize private pictures and health information.
The missing hard drive allegedly contains pictures of Schumacher’s health and his medical records.
As the interested party
Corinna Schumacher has kept her husband’s status a secret. EPA / AOP
Corinna Schumacher won her will in court and the judge named her as the second interested party.
Thus, he can influence the course of the trial and, for example, request that the sessions regarding Michael Schumacher’s health information be held behind closed doors.
She has kept her husband’s condition out of the public eye since the skiing accident in 2013. In addition, Corinna Schumacher has only allowed a few people to visit her husband.