BERLIN, Nov 2, 2008 (AFP) –
German prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that the country's richest woman, Susanne Klatten, was blackmailed for millions of euros by an ex-lover, a spokesman and media said on Sunday.
"We have been carrying out an investigation for several months," Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors, told AFP.
Italian authorities also opened an inquiry, he said.
Klatten, who holds a large stake in automaker BMW and Altana speciality chemical company, allegedly paid 7.5 million euros to a Swiss Helg Sgarbi to stop him from publishing compromising photos and videos of the couple's relationship, the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag reported.
The 41-year-old suspect was taken into custody by German authorities some weeks ago, Schmidt-Sommerfeld said.
The heiress to the Quandt family fortune and mother of three children "filed a complaint for fraud and blackmail in January 2008 with a Munich court," he added.
Schmidt-Sommerfeld said that Sgarbi started blackmailing Klatten from August 2007 when he asked for a loan of several million euros, before demanding a much higher "ransom" for the footage -- as much as 40 million euros, according to German media reports.
Italian media allege that Sgarbi and Klatten met in a Munich hotel, while a 63-year-old Italian man filmed the couple having sex from a next-door bedroom.
Klatten has a personal fortune of 7.8 billion euros, according to German's Manager Magazin.
As yet no photos or videos have been released.
Germany's richest woman embroiled in blackmail sex tape scandal
BERLIN, Nov 2, 2008 (AFP) – German prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegati...
Sunday 05 July 2009
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