German prosecutors announced charges on Wednesday against three men for allegedly blackmailing the family of renowned former Formula One driver Michael Schumacher.
Schumacher, a record-breaking world champion, suffered severe injuries in a skiing accident in late 2013 and has not been seen in public since. His family has kept details of his condition private.
According to the public prosecutor's office in Wuppertal, a former security employee of the Schumacher family is accused of providing private recordings used in the blackmail scheme, while another man and his son are alleged to have carried out the extortion attempt.
Prosecutors said the alleged perpetrators made several calls to the Schumacher family demanding 15 million euros ($17 million). They allegedly threatened to publish sensitive private data on the internet if the money wasn't paid.
The material used for the crime was reportedly obtained by a man who had previously worked as a security service provider for the Schumacher family and was responsible for digitizing private photos.
Authorities seized a large number of potential evidence items, such as hard drives, USB sticks and cell phones, during the man's arrest.
German police launched their investigation after receiving a tip from Swiss law enforcement. According to investigators, "technical measures" ultimately revealed that the suspected blackmailers were operating from Wuppertal.
This case is not the first time Schumacher's family has been subjected to an alleged blackmail attempt. In 2017, a court in southern Germany convicted a 25-year-old man for attempting to blackmail Schumacher's wife, Corinna Schumacher, for 900,000 euros.
That man had threatened that otherwise something would happen to the children, but he was caught in part because he included his actual bank account information in an email to Corinna Schumacher. He received a suspended sentence of 21 months.
