crime
Seven years in prison for dm blackmailers
The 53-year-old accused in the district court of Karlsruhe. photo
© Uli Deck/dpa
The Karlsruhe regional court has sentenced a man to seven years behind bars. He had been charged with extortion robbery.
A 53-year-old man who extorted several hundred thousand euros in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin from the drugstore chain dm is said to be behind bars for seven years. The Karlsruhe regional court sentenced him on Friday, among other things, for particularly severe predatory extortion and causing an explosive explosion. He should also pay around half a million euros to the company.
The German, who last lived in Constance and Switzerland, had extorted the equivalent of around half a million euros from the drugstore chain in September 2019. In addition, he had detonated an explosive device in a Freiburg dm branch near the cat food – to emphasize his claim. There was damage of 20,000 euros. Nobody got hurt.
The blackmailer’s motive: After repeated burnout, he no longer worked as a nurse and wanted to secure an income until retirement. The defendant confessed to the crime at the beginning of the trial.
The public prosecutor had requested a prison sentence of nine years. The defense attorney had pleaded for a “mild sentence” without naming a specific penalty. The verdict is not yet legally binding.