Schumacher bodyguard's plot to extort £12m by releasing medical photos


Schumacher bodyguard

Updated: 10:02 GMT, 1 December 2024 Extraordinary new details of an alleged blackmail plot to extort £12million from the family of Michael Schumacher by a former aide of the F1 legend who threatened to release highly personal photos of him onto the dark web can be revealed for the first time today. Seven times world champion Schumacher, 55, has not been seen in public since a 2013 skiing accident left him seriously disabled and in need of 24-hour care with the star's wife Corinna fiercely protective of his privacy and medical care since then. One of the men that Corinna took into the family's trusted inner circle to help with that care was the star's bodyguard Markus Fritsche who had been recruited 18 months before his skiing accident. For eight years the Schumachers had no doubts about the 53-year-old's loyalty and he was given unique access to the most intimate aspects of the disabled racing driver's medical procedures. But when the family finally decided to make changes to the care regime and Fritsche was told he was to be let go, he is alleged to have become bitter - and then to have concocted an elaborate blackmail plot. According to prosecutors in Germany, Fritsche recruited his long-term friend Yilmaz Tozturkan and his IT expert son to extort the staggering sum from the family who had employed him. The plot they are alleged to have hatched centred around some 1,500 images, 200 videos and extensive personal medical notes about Schumacher. The bulk of this super sensitive material was allegedly contained on four USB sticks and two hard drives which Fritsche is said to have removed from the Schumacher mansion once he realised he was going to be asked to leave. The gang are then alleged to have made contact with the Schumachers, informed them of the material they had illegally obtained - and threatened to release this cache onto the dark web if they were not paid a ransom of a staggering £12 million. The details of how Fritsche, along with fellow 53-year-old Tozturkan and his son Daniel Lins, 30, carried out the alleged plot will be heard next month when their trial is due to start in Wuppertal, Germany. Tozturkan, a nightclub bouncer, and Fritsche had known each other for more than 20 years and live close to each other in Wuppertal, where the trial is due to take place.