Up to 3 years in prison for attempt to blackmail Michael Schumacher’s family for $15.6M

Three men have been found guilty in a case of attempted blackmail against Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher’s family. The perpetrators demanded 15 million euros ($15.6 million) from the family to avoid releasing hundreds of private photos and videos of the family as well as digitized copies of Schumacher’s medical records.

A district court in Wuppertal, western Germany, sentenced the main defendant to three years in prison, while his son received a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of 1,200 euros, news agency dpa reported on Wednesday. The main defendant had previous convictions.

Another defendant, a former security guard for the family, received a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 2,400 euros for aiding and abetting the other two men. Judge Birgit Neubert said the former security worker made the most significant contribution to the crime through his breach of trust, dpa reported.

The Schumacher family was threatened with the release of the private material on the darknet. The public prosecutor’s office said some 900 pictures and nearly 600 videos of the family and Schumacher’s digitized medical records were confiscated from the perpetrators. A hard drive remained missing.