BMW heiress blackmail
July 17, 2009
In June this year, the blackmailers had written to Susanne Klatten and threatened to sell recordings of her with Helg Sgarbi to the Italian media if the mother of three did not hand over 800,000 euros ($1.1 million) and a BMW X5 luxury sports utility vehicle. The BWM-heiress immediately contacted the authorities.
Police in the northern German city of Duisburg "pretended to be acquaintances contacting them on behalf of Klatten," said Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, a spokesman for prosecutors in Munich. Police arrived in the BMW X5 to "complete the deal" as agreed on Wednesday. The three men were immediately arrested.
Police said two of the three men aged 33 to 46 have a criminal history involving fraud and narcotics. Police said they had started analyzing computers and other evidence but so far no videos had been found.
Not the first copy-cat attempt
This is not the first copy-cat attempt to extort Germany's richest woman. A Munich newspaper reported that in March this year, Klatten had received a letter from someone claiming to be Sgarbi's prison inmate who had told him where the sex-videos were hidden. He had "only" demanded 75,000 euros. Klatten did not hesitate to pass the letter on to the authorities.
"We have a 100 percent success rate in catching any would-be blackmailers," warned Steinkraus-Koch.
44-year old Swiss national Helg Sgarbi is currently serving a six-year prison term for blackmailing the billionairess. The former investment banker met Klatten in a luxury hotel in Tirol in 2007 and began an affair with her and methodically videoed their private meetings. Sgarbi has refused to provide the names of any accomplices, or say where he has hidden the videos and the seven million euros he received from Klatten.
Police do have a seven-minute video in their possession but have not said what is on it. No other videos of Klatten and Sgarbi have ever been recovered.
"We have not found any videos so far," said Steinkraus-Koch. "We cannot rule out however that they do not exist. We have evidence that they may have been destroyed, but this has not been confirmed."
wl/AP/dpa
Editor: Neil King