Two men who allegedly tried blackmailing the family of Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher were detained earlier this month, German prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors in the western German city of Wuppertal said the suspects told employees of the family that they were in possession of files that the family wouldn't want to be published, German news agency dpa reported.
The two men allegedly demanded a payment of several million euros or said they would otherwise publish the files on the darknet, prosecutors said.
As alleged proof, the suspects sent some files to the family, prosecutors said. They didn't give further details on the content of the files.
Thanks to 鈥渢echnical measures,鈥 investigators were able to track down the suspects, a father and a son from Wuppertal, ages 53 and 30, who are both on probation in another case, dpa reported. They were detained on June 19 on a supermarket parking lot in the central town of Gross-Gerau and are in custody. Their names weren't given in line with German privacy rules.
鈥淚f convicted, they face a fine or prison sentence of up to five years,鈥 chief public prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert said, according to dpa.
Schumacher suffered a near-fatal brain injury while skiing in the French Alps at Meribel in December 2013. He had fallen and his head hit a rock, which split open his helmet. Since being transferred from a hospital in September 2014, the seven-time F1 champion has been cared for privately at a family home in Switzerland.
The 55-year-old Schumacher retired from F1 in 2012 after winning 91 races, and five straight titles with Ferrari from 2000-04. The German driver鈥檚 other two titles were with Benetton in 1994 and 1995.
Last month, Schumacher's family won legal action against the publisher of a magazine which printed an artificial intelligence-generated interview with the F1 great.
German magazine Die Aktuelle promoted on its cover in April 2023 the words, 鈥淢ichael Schumacher, the first interview!鈥 It also wrote 鈥渋t sounds deceptively real鈥 with the supposed quotes attributed to Schumacher generated by AI. Die Aktuelle is one of many tabloid celebrity magazines in Germany.
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Mattea Roach among the Maritimers honoured with the King Charles III Coronation Medal Friday.
Montrealers can get used to taking a stroll on several car-free streets during the summer in the years to come thanks to a new commitment from the city.
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U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris on Saturday accepted an invitation from CNN to debate former U.S. president Donald Trump on Oct. 23.
The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb has risen to 31, including seven women and three children, Lebanon's health minister said on Saturday.
Voting has ended Saturday in Sri Lanka's presidential election as the country seeks to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history and the resulting political upheaval.
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
An 11-year-old boy died Monday after subway surfing in New York City. He's the fourth person to die from subway surfing in the city this year.
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Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there is no guarantee Ottawa can evacuate them if the situation deteriorates further.
The federal firearm buyback program has cost taxpayers nearly $67.2 million since it was announced in 2020, but it still hasn't collected a single gun.
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The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
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Jim Lester鈥檚 farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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