Michael Schumacher and his family were blackmailed for close to £13million by a gang who’d stolen private photos of the Formula 1 icon, who was last seen in public 12 years ago
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Stricken Michael Schumacher’s condition has been kept private(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
More than 1,000 photos and videos showing Michael Schumacher in the years following his horrific skiing accident are still missing. Formula 1 legend Schumacher has been shielded from public view since 2013, with his family working tirelessly to keep his condition private.
The German suffered life-changing injuries when he hit his head on a rock while skiing in the Alps. Schumacher, 56, was placed into a medically induced coma for several months before being moved to his family’s home on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
But even by his devoted family’s side – namely wife Corinna, son Mick and daughter Gina-Maria – people have attempted to exploit them. Earlier this year, three men were found guilty of using the photos and videos to blackmail the Schumachers for nearly £13million.
The case has this week returned to court for a retrial, as his loved ones fight for tougher sentences and two of the men appeal their convictions. More than 900 photos and almost 600 videos, as well as confidential medical records, were digitally smuggled out of their house.
The sensitive content was stored on two hard drives and four USBs. Police seized all but one of the hard drives which is yet to be found. Prosecutors therefore can’t confirm whether anyone else holds copies of the stolen data.
Bodyguard Markus Fritsche, who worked in the family’s home for eight years, was found to have passed the hard drives to nightclub bouncer Yilmaz Tozturkan, who was 53 at the time of the verdict, and his 30-year-old son.
Tozturkan then threatened to release everything on the dark web unless the Schumacher family paid him €15m (£12.8m) in ransom money. After appearing in court in February, Tozturkan was jailed for three years while his son was given a six-month suspended sentence for aiding and abetting extortion.
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Markus Fritsche was part of a three-man gang convicted for extortion(Image: Facebook/markus.fritsche)
Meanwhile, Fritsche, who’s denied any involvement in the crime, was slapped with a two-year suspended prison sentence, punishment which the Schumachers described as ‘disgracefully lenient’ and are now challenging. In a statement, Corinna spoke about the ‘massive breach of trust’ and blamed Fritsche, who alongside Tozturkan is appealing his sentence, for masterminding the plot.
“We have appealed against what we consider to be the far too lenient sentence for Mr F,” Corinna said. “In my opinion, he was the mastermind behind this.
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Corinna Schumacher pictured in 2022 with her daughter, Gina-Maria(Image: Getty Images)
“What still shocks me most is the massive breach of trust. He should receive a punishment that deters any potential copycats.”
Fritsche had been working for the family for 18 months prior to Schumacher’s accident. According to the defence, Corinna had asked him to digitise the family’s private photos, arguing that the material had gone missing after his contract was terminated.
The retrial began on Friday in the German city of Wuppertal. Five hearings are scheduled between now and early December, as the 12th anniversary of the last time that the public were able to catch a glimpse of the seven-time world champion approaches.
