A hard drive believed to contain Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher’s ‘intimate’ images and medical files has gone missing, a German court heard today.
The trial of three men accused of being part of a £12 million plot to blackmail Schumacher’s family began today at Wuppertal District Court.
The famous racing driver’s former bodyguard Markus Fritsche, 53, is accused of masterminding an extortion bid which hinged on intimate private material which allegedly took from Schumacher’s mansion and then threatened to leak.
He appeared in court today alongside his two alleged co-conspirators, his friend Yilmaz Tozturkan, also 53, and Tozturkan’s son Daniel Lins, 30.
It emerged during the hearing today that one of the hard drives the three men had, which allegedly contained the images, has not been recovered by police.
One hard drive and four USB sticks were found at Tozturkan’s nephew’s home during a search earlier this year.
But another drive, which he claimed to have hidden at his mother’s house, was not found, sparking fears that it may yet end up on the dark web.
The trio demanded £12 million from the Schumacher family, or they would release the material which included 1,500 images, 200 videos and extensive medical notes.
German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher pictured in 2012
Markus Fritsche (L), Daniel Lins (fourth to the right wearing black roll neck) and Yilmaz Tozturkan (behind) in court today
For eight years bodyguard Markus Fritsche was given unique access to the most intimate aspects of the legend’s medical procedures
Schumacher has not been seen in public since a horrific 2013 ski accident.
Tozturkan, a nightclub bouncer, told the court how his pal Fritsche gave him intimate photographs of racer Schumacher and told him: ‘We can definitely do something with these.’
Tozturkan, who is in custody, told the court in Wuppertal that he ‘got the material around 2021, the time of Corona.’
Dressed in a black Adidas tracksuit, he said: ‘Fritsche and I have known each other for a long time. We keep in contact, and we met for a coffee.
‘He said that he was in possession of this material, and he asked if we could do anything with it. I said: ‘I will ask but we will definitely be able to do something.’
‘I was given two hard drives, one was black, and the other was blue’, he added.
‘For the most part I admit everything, but I didn’t buy the pictures,’ he told the court.
‘I was going to try and sell them first but when I didn’t get any interest that’s when I contacted the Schumacher family.
‘My son only helped by providing me with an email address, that’s it. He didn’t know anything about the blackmail.’
Tozturkan said that he understood the pictures had been passed to Fritsche ‘by a nurse’ and said that they showed Schumacher in ‘poor health’.
He said that he copied the pictures several times and when asked if he understood this was blackmail, he replied: ‘It turned out badly, what can I say?’.
‘It’s easy to say things with hindsight, I just thought I could make a little bit of money from the story.’
When asked by the judge where the hard drives were now, Tozturkan said:’ They are with the police.’
He added: ‘I made a mistake, but it can’t be that just one person is guilty, I find this out of order.’
At this point Toturkan’s ex wife, Michaela Lins, Daniel’s mother, clapped loudly and was asked by the judge to ‘keep quiet’.
Fritsche allegedly recruited his long-term friend Yilmaz Tozturkan (pictured) and his IT expert son to extort the staggering sum from the family who had employed him
Seven times world champion Schumacher, 55, pictured with his wife Corinna, has not been seen in public since a 2013 skiing accident left him seriously disabled and in need of 24-hour care
Pictured: The block of flats where Yilmaz Toztuerkan has a flat in the town of Wuppertal in Germany
Pictured the block of flats (in Wuppertal) where Daniel Lins lives. Both father and son worked at the Grey nightclub in the German city of Konstanz, which is close the Swiss border, and where they both lived although they also had apartments in Wuppertal
Pictured: The home of Markus Fritsche in the town of Wuelfrath. Fritsche – who was working as a security guard at the Mercedes Benz plant in Dusseldorf, at the time of his arrest – worked at Schumacher estate as a close protection officer and aide
Tozturkan said: ‘It was Fritsche who came up with the idea that we should sell the material for between 10-15 million Euro. I’m telling the truth, you should in court.’
After Tozturkan had spoken, his son Lins was asked about his role and when questioned by the judge, he also admitted to being involved in the plot but insisted that he had ‘no idea it was blackmail’.
He said: ‘My dad just asked me to make an email address and then video him as he made a telephone call.
‘I wish now that I hadn’t but what can I say, it was my dad, but I didn’t realise it was anything wrong, I didn’t know, that’s all I can say.
‘He asked me to make an email address that couldn’t be traced and when he forwarded it to me, I couldn’t see the content.
‘My dad just said it was something legal and to do with a lawyer and I didn’t ask any more questions.
‘In the end he sent it and I think it was to a lawyer in Frankfurt, it was a woman, and he also made a call, I knew it was a woman because of the voice on the speaker.
‘All I was told was the material concerned a famous person, he said he had photos to sell of that person and that was it, he told me this about a month before he was arrested.
‘He said he was in talks with a lawyer about selling these pictures, but I didn’t know who it was, I didn’t ask.’
Unlike the other two, Fritsche did not initially speak in court and instead his lawyer Harald Benninghoven read out a statement on his behalf, denying blackmail.
Mr Benningoven said: ‘Tozturkan and my client are friends, they do business together and they worked at the nightclub.
‘From 2012 my client was employed by the Schumacher family and that job ended in 2020 and in January 2021 he was asked to leave a flat he had been provided.
‘He had also been asked to digitalise photographs for Corinna, while he was working for the Schumacher family, and he did so, saving them on a blue hard drive.
‘One day when he came back to his apartment, everything had been packed away and he assumed it had been done by the Schumacher family and they had the pictures.
‘At no point did they ask him anything about the pictures.’
Fritsche and Lins had arrived for the hearing on foot and the former bodyguard was seen laughing and joking as he entered the building with a backpack talking to his lawyer.
Lins’ mother Michaela was also in the court as was his brother and the family exchanged glances and smiles.
Racing legend Schumacher’s family have filed a request for parts of his bombshell blackmail trial to be heard in private MailOnline can reveal.
Corinna Schumacher who jealously guards her husband’s health since his horrific 2013 ski accident asked lawyers to make the request ahead of the case.
Judge Brigit Neubert will hear the application at the start of the hearing which has attracted worldwide media interest with press from Japan and Australia attending.
If the application by the Schumacher family is granted it means the public will be excluded from hearing any testimony related to his current health.
Wuppertal court spokesperson Wolf-Tilman Baumert told MailOnline:’A motion has been filed by the Schumacher family for parts of the case relating to the state of Mr Schumacher’s health to be kept from the public.
‘I cannot see any reason why the judge would not grant this request and that would mean the public being asked to leave the court when these details are discussed.’
He added: ‘This is a blackmail case. The trial is against three persons who tried to blackmail the Schumacher family with private data about his injuries and his state of health.
‘This material came from a security member of his staff. The Schumacher family are represented by a lawyer but they are not present.
‘Today will be a long day with several witnesses being heard including police officers involved in the case.
Updates on the health of the Ferrari legend have been few and far between in recent years
Schumacher lives and received treatments in his £50million mansion in Gland, Switzerland
‘It wasn’t a very complicated case, all the accused were arrested within two weeks of the investigation being launched.
‘If convicted these men could be jailed for a maximum of 15 years.’
The trial of three men accused of being part of a £12 million plot to blackmail the family of F1 racing legend Schumacher began today.
The famous racing driver’s trusted bodyguard is accused of masterminding an extortion bid which hinged on intimate private material which he had removed from Schumacher’s mansion then threatened to leak.
Bodyguard Markus Fritsche, 53, appears in court today alongside his two alleged co-conspirators, his friend Yilmaz Tozturkan, also 53, and Tozturkan’s son Daniel Lins, 30.
Investigators say Tozturkan initially contacted an assistant of the Schumacher family in June, at their home in Switzerland by telephone and then email.
They were told that if the family paid the eyewatering sum, 1,500 images, 200 videos and extensive medical notes on Schumacher would ‘not be released onto the dark web’.
The court in Wuppertal will hear how the material was taken by Fritsche – a bodyguard who worked with Schumacher for nine years – after he was let go from his job in 2021.
The bulk of this super sensitive data 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.
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.
In September Wuppertal public prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert announced the investigation had been completed, three months after the men had initially been arrested following a joint operation by Swiss and German police.
It is understood that on the morning of June 3, Tozturkan allegedly used a withheld number to call and say he was in possession of photos and videos and allegedly threatened to release them onto the dark web.
It is claimed that Tozturkan’s son, Lins – who uses his mother’s maiden name – then sent four images to the Schumacher residence on June 11 and allegedly told the family they had ‘a month’ to come up with 15 million Euros (£12 million) payable in two instalments in exchange for the material.
The exchange was to take place at the office of the Schumacher family lawyer.
A week later on June 19 Tozturkan and his son were arrested by police in Germany after being placed under surveillance, it is believed.
Tozturkan has been charged with extortion, while Lins has been accused of aiding and abetting extortion.
Both father and son worked at the Grey nightclub in the German city of Konstanz, which is close to the Swiss border, and where they both lived although they also had apartments in Wuppertal.
Fritsche – who was working as a security guard at the Mercedes Benz plant in Dusseldorf, at the time of his arrest – worked at Schumacher estate as a close protection officer and aide, also helping the family with IT issues for nine years.
He began working with the family in March 2012 – just 18 months before F1 legend Schumacher’s ski accident.
During a glittering 19-year career from 1991 to 2012 with Ferrari, Mercedes and Benetton, Schumacher amassed a £468 million fortune, as he won his seven titles, winning 91 races.
Tozturkan is currently in custody while his son and Fritsche, who lives in Wulfrath near Wuppertal, are on bail.
Schumacher has not been seen in public since a horrific 2013 skiing accident, and there is huge interest in the case with queues building up outside the court before dawn.
At this morning’s hearing judge Birgit Neubert will decide if there is enough evidence for the case to proceed and four dates have already been set aside for further hearings with the last in February next year.
Prosecutors are demanding at least four years but because of the amount allegedly demanded if found guilty the men could be given longer terms by a superior judge.
Media from all over the world has applied to cover the case but there are only a limited amount of places as the court is being renovated.
There is also speculation that a member of the Schumacher family may attend the hearing to give evidence, and ten other witnesses have been called including police officers and the assistant who was initially contacted.
Four further hearing dates have been arranged between now and February with a verdict expected early in the New Year.
There was previously a blackmail attempt made on the Schumacher family – in 2017 a 25-year-old man was given a suspended sentence of 21 months for demanding 900,000 Euros from Michael’s wife Corinna.
The man said he would ‘harm’ the couple’s son Mick, but was traced after including his personal bank account.
