A member of former Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher’s security team stole 1,500 photographs and 200 videos in a €15 million ($15.7 million) blackmail plot, German prosecutors have alleged.
A trial of three suspects will open in the German city of Wuppertal this month.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher, 55, suffered a serious head injury in a December 2013 skiing accident and has not been seen in public since.
His family have kept information about his condition a secret.
Prosecutors allege Markus Fritsche, 53, used his trusted role within the family’s security team to access photographs and videos as revenge when he discovered he was being fired earlier this year.
It is alleged Fritsche hatched a plot with his son Daniel Lins, 30, a computer expert, and a friend, nightclub bouncer Yilmaz Tozturkan, 53, to threaten to release the material onto the dark web if their ransom was not paid.
The prosecution allege the information was taken from the Schumacher’s family home in Switzerland on four USB sticks.
A telephone call from Tozturkan on June 3 allegedly alerted the family to the stolen material, with proof then sent to the family via email. Another email followed on June 11 allegedly including four images and the ransom demands.
Swiss authorities were able to trace the caller’s number, leading to three arrests being made on June 19.
The Schumacher family are no strangers to extortion attempts over his condition.
In 2017, a 25-year-old man was given a suspended 21-month sentence for demanding €900,000 after threatening to harm his son Mick Schumacher, who raced for the Haas F1 team in 2021 and 2022.
They were also dragged into legal proceedings earlier this year when a German magazine claimed an AI-generated interview was actually an exclusive with the Formula 1 legend himself.
The Schumacher family was awarded €200,000 ($217,000) in damages by a Munich court in May.