3 charged in blackmail of Formula 1 driver Schumacher's family

German prosecutors charged three men on Wednesday for allegedly blackmailing the family of famed former Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, reported dpa.

Schumacher, a record-breaking Formula 1 world champion driver, was seriously injured in a skiing accident in late 2013 and has not appeared in public since. His family have remained private about his condition.

A former security employee of the family allegedly made private recordings available for the blackmail, while another man and his son are accused of carrying out the blackmail attempt, according to the public prosecutor's office in the western German city of Wuppertal.

According to prosecutors, the alleged perpetrators made several calls to the Schumacher family demanding €15 million. They allegedly threatened to publish sensitive private data on the internet if the money wasn't paid.

The material used for the crime was allegedly obtained by a man who had worked as a security service provider for the Schumacher family in the past and was also responsible for digitizing private photos.

Authorities seized a large number of other items of possible evidence such as hard disks, USB sticks and cellphones during the man's arrest.

German police launched their investigation into the case after receiving a tip from Swiss law enforcement. According to the investigators, "technical measures" finally made it clear that the suspected blackmailers were operating from Wuppertal.

The case is not the first time Schumacher's family have been subject to an alleged blackmail attempt. In 2017, a court in southern Germany convicted a 25-year-old man for attempting to blackmail Schumacher's wife Corinna Schumacher for €900,000.

That man had threatened that otherwise something would happen to the children, but was caught in part because he included his actual bank account information in an email to Corinna Schumacher.

He was given a suspended sentence of 21 months.