WUPPERTAL, Germany (AP) — Three men have been found guilty in a case of attempted blackmail against Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher’s family.
The perpetrators demanded 15 million euros ($15.6 million) from the family to avoid releasing hundreds of private photos and videos of the family as well as digitized copies of Schumacher’s medical records.
A district court in Wuppertal, western Germany, sentenced the main defendant to three years in prison, while his son received a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of 1,200 euros, news agency dpa reported on Wednesday. The main defendant had previous convictions.
Another defendant, a former security guard for the family, received a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 2,400 euros for aiding and abetting the other two men. Judge Birgit Neubert said the former security worker made the most significant contribution to the crime through his breach of trust, dpa reported.
The Schumacher family was threatened with the release of the private material on the darknet. The public prosecutor’s office said some 900 pictures and nearly 600 videos of the family and Schumacher’s digitized medical records were confiscated from the perpetrators. A hard drive remained missing.
Representing the Schumacher family, lawyer Thilo Damm said the family will appeal in the case against the former security guard, against whom they wanted a four-year prison term.
While the other two defendants confessed to the charges, the security guard’s lawyer denied the charges and demanded an acquittal. He said his client had not stolen the sensitive data.
The family has shielded Schumacher from public view since his serious skiing accident in December 2013. Schumacher was skiing in the French Alps at Meribel when he fell and his head hit a rock, resulting in a near-fatal brain injury. Since being transferred from hospital in September 2014, the seven-time F1 champion has been cared for privately at a family home in Switzerland.
Schumacher retired from F1 in 2012 after winning 91 races, and five straight titles with Ferrari from 2000-04. The German driver’s other two titles were with Benetton in 1994-95.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
FILE - Michael Schumacher announces his retirement from Formula One during a press conference at the Suzuka Circuit venue for the Japanese Formula One Grand Prix in Suzuka, Japan, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye, File)
GENEVA (AP) — The daughter of a former president of Uzbekistan was facing a trial in absentia starting Monday in Switzerland in connection with alleged bribery and money laundering involving assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former President Islam Karimov, is behind bars in Uzbekistan as the trial opens in a Swiss federal criminal court in the southern city of Bellinzona. It's set to run through May 22.
Swiss prosecutors say Karimova developed and ran a crime ring known as “The Office” that involved several dozen people and multiple companies. She is accused of depositing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of funds “of criminal origin” in Switzerland and abroad, and arranging for safe deposit boxes for the deposit of cash, jewelry and other valuables of criminal origin, the prosecutors said.
Grégoire Mangeat, one of her defense lawyers, said in an email that Karimova was being prevented from leaving the “prison colony” where she has been detained in Uzbekistan to attend the trial.
“We will seek the full and complete acquittal of Gulnara Karimova,” he said.
Uzbek news outlet Podrobno described Karimova’s presence in the Swiss courtroom as “virtually impossible” as the 53-year-old was already serving her sentence in Uzbekistan.
It said that Karimova had been moved to a women’s penal colony in Uzbekistan’s Zangiota region, on the outskirts of the capital, Tashkent, in early 2025.
Karimova was indicted three years ago in Switzerland along with a former director-general of the Uzbek subsidiary of a Russian telecommunications company for crimes allegedly committed between 2005 and 2013.
That was during her father's tenure. He led the Central Asian country for over a quarter-century until his death in 2016. Karimova had previously worked in Geneva in connection with the United Nations, and benefited from diplomatic immunity.
Karimova has faced a series of trials after a first conviction in Uzbekistan eight years ago, and is serving a 13-year sentence for organizing a criminal group, extortion and embezzlement.
In November 2024, Swiss prosecutors announced the indictment of Swiss private bank Lombard Odier and a former employee on allegations they had a “decisive role in concealing the proceeds of the criminal activities of ‘The Office.’”
Lombard Odier, in an email, said the prosecutor doesn't allege that the bank knowingly or intentionally engaged in money laundering, “but rather raises claims relating to alleged organizational shortcomings in prevention measures, which the bank firmly contests and will defend in court.”
FILE - Gulnara Karimova arrives for the screening of the film "The Exodus - Burnt By The Sun 2", at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, on May 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
