In December 2013, the Schumacher family moved to the Méribel ski resort in the French Alps to ski and celebrate the new year in harmony. However, on the 29th of that same month, everything changed forever. Michael Schumacher (55) suffered an accident while skiing down one of the slopes, causing irreparable brain damage and leaving him in a vegetative state since then.
Since then, Corinna (55), his wife, took care of providing the best care to the kaiser and, above all, ensuring privacy at all times. This has been one of the biggest headaches as Schumacher remains one of the most beloved athletes in the world and the desire to know sometimes has no limits. Gradually, Corinna reduced the number of people who could have access to her husband.
One of them has become a traitor. This is Markus Fritsche (53), the bodyguard of the F1 driver for eight years who, after being fired, devised his own revenge. The former employee stole 1,500 photos and 200 videos about Schumacher's health condition with the intention of blackmailing them. If the Schumachers did not want that information to end up on the Dark Web, they had to pay him 15 million dollars. According to the Daily Mail, he was also involved with security guard Yilmaz Tozturkan and his son, Daniel Lins.
The seized material contains sensitive information about Michael's health such as x-rays, medical reports, lists of medications, etc. Corinna and their children, Gina-Maria (27) and Mick (25), joined forces so that the authorities could arrest the criminals as soon as possible. Last June, the three individuals were arrested in a joint operation by Swiss and German police after Tozturkan hypothetically called the Schumachers from a hidden number to threaten them with blackmail. German and British media have reported that the prosecutor in the German city of Wuppertal, Wolf-Tilman Baumert, has completed the investigation and, therefore, the trial will take place after the Christmas holidays. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
Unfortunately, this was not the first time the Schumachers had to face blackmail, as revealed by Bild in 2017, when a painter named Hüseyin B. sent Corinna an email where, in addition to requesting money, he threatened their children. After being arrested and found guilty, the Reutlingen District Court sentenced him to a fine of 4,500 dollars, 50 hours of community service, and one year and nine months of probation for attempted commercial extortion.