A German court has convicted three men for attempting to blackmail the family of former Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher.
Yilmaz T, 53, received a three-year prison sentence for threatening to leak 900 personal photos, nearly 600 videos, and confidential medical records on the dark web unless the Schumacher family paid €15 million (£12 million). His 30-year-old son, who assisted in the scheme, was handed a six-month suspended sentence. Markus F, a former security guard at Schumacher’s residence, received a two-year suspended sentence despite denying any involvement.
The blackmail plot stemmed from sensitive files that Markus F allegedly passed to Yilmaz T for a “five-figure sum.” Yilmaz T confessed to his role, calling his actions “very, very disgusting” and expressing remorse. According to his testimony, the security guard provided two hard drives, one of which remains missing.
The court heard that Markus F had been hired by Schumacher’s wife, Corinna, to digitize family photos, but the files disappeared following his dismissal. Despite his denial, the judge held Markus F responsible for enabling the extortion attempt. The family’s lawyer, Thilo Damm, criticized his suspended sentence as too lenient and announced plans to appeal.
The blackmailers had emailed samples of the stolen material to the family and attempted to frame their actions as a “clean deal” to help recover the files. However, the Schumachers alerted Swiss authorities, who traced the threats to Germany, resulting in the trio’s arrest in June 2024.
Damm also expressed concern about the missing hard drive, warning that it could pose a future security threat: “We don’t know where it is, and there’s a real possibility of another attempt through the backdoor.”
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