Three individuals have been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail against the family of the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher.
Schumacher has been out of the public eye since 2013 after a ski accident resulted in serious brain injuries, as the family decided to keep his medical condition private.
Yilmaz T, a bouncer at a nightclub in southern Germany, has been sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to upload 900 personal photos, approximately 600 videos, and confidential medical records to the dark web unless the Schumacher family paid €15million (£12million).
The 53-year-old’s son received a six-month suspended sentence for aiding and abetting extortion, while a former security guard at Schumacher’s home, who denied involvement, was given a two-year suspended sentence.
Both the father and son admitted to most of the charges against them, with Yilmaz stating in court that his actions were “very, very disgusting.”
“I realised that on the second day in prison, I will answer for it,“ he said.
Yilmaz admitted to receiving two hard drives from the security guard, Markus F, who was accused of passing the sensitive files for a “five-figure sum”.
It is believed that one of the hard drives was never recovered.
The judge criticized the security guard for allowing the blackmail scheme to start, while the Schumacher family’s lawyer announced they would contest his suspended sentence.
Markus had been working for the family for 18 months before Schumacher’s ski accident.
According to the defence, Schumacher’s wife, Corinna, had asked him to digitize the family’s private photos.
They claimed that the material went missing after his contract was terminated.
Schumachers’ lawyer labels offence the ‘ultimate betrayal’
The court continued to hear how Yilmaz and his son had emailed the Schumacher family samples of the stolen files.
Recordings of phone calls made to the Schumacher family were also presented.
During one of these conversations, the father explained to the family that instead of attempting to blackmail them, he was willing to act as a broker to return the files and identify their source in what he referred to as a “clean deal”.
In response, the Schumacher family contacted local authorities in Switzerland who were able to track down the source of the call to Germany.
The three men were subsequently arrested back in June 2024.
Thilo Damm, the lawyer for Schumacher’s family, stated that the sentences were too lenient for what he termed the “ultimate betrayal”.
“We do not agree with everything the court said,” he said.
“You can rest assured that we will exhaust all legal possibilities at our disposal.”
Concerns were also raised by Damm about a missing hard drive, despite thorough searches of the defendants’ properties.
“We don’t know where the missing hard drive is,” he explained.
“I don’t have a crystal ball but there is the possibility of another threat through the backdoor.”
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