A former security guard for the Schumacher family and an accomplice have been accused of attempting to extort almost $15 million from the family of the F1 legend.
German media reports claim that a man identified as Markus F stole two hard drives containing sensitive medical data about Michael Schumacher's health.
In December 2013, in Meribel, France, the seven-time world champion suffered severe brain damage following a skiing accident, and from which he has never recovered.
Since then, the Schumacher family, led by the German driver’s wife Corinna, has fiercely protected his privacy at their Lake Geneva home.
But the sanctuary was shattered last month by a chilling betrayal.
Markus F, who had worked as a security guard for the Schumacher family for five years, allegedly collaborated with another man, Yilmaz T, to obtain the hard drives.
These drives contained 1500 files including photos, videos, medication lists, and other information about Schumacher's condition.
On June 3, Yilmaz T allegedly contacted the Schumacher family’s office, revealing he had the information and threatened to publish it on the dark web, a lawless corner of the internet, unless the family paid a staggering $15 million.
Two days later, Yilmaz T received the data and was provided an email address to verify its authenticity.
An anonymous email address was created to send the files, which were received by Schumacher's office that afternoon and verified as genuine.
On June 17, Yilmaz T contacted the Schumacher office again, demanding that the $15 million payment be made in two installments: half for one hard drive, with the second half due three days later for the second hard drive.
In the interim, Corinna had contacted the authorities. Working hand-in-hand, Swiss and German law enforcement launched an investigation.
Markus F was arrested at his home in Wulfrath, and Yilmaz T and his son were also detained.
“After the advanced investigations, we currently assume that the accused son may have acted more as an accomplice,” senior public prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert, spokesman for the Wuppertal public prosecutor’s office, said.
This isn't the first time the Schumacher family has faced threats since Michael's accident. In 2016, Corinna received emails threatening her children, Mick and Gina-Maria, from a painter who was later sentenced to a year and nine months in jail.
Earlier this year, a German magazine was ordered to pay $325,000 in compensation to the Schumacher family after publishing a fake, AI-generated ‘interview’ with the F1 legend.
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