Michael Schumacher's med. thief has 'committed suicide'

[Cardillac]

Hi all,

maybe I'm reporting on this too early-

I realize this topic will not exactly interest everyone; as if German race-car star Michael Schumacher is exactly a shaker in the world of geopolitics;

but he's an extremely rich man (just look at photos of his sumptuous housing near Gland, Switzerland) and I from the beginning always felt there was something suspicious about his freak accident- afterwards he was supposedly brain-dead, subsequently put into an artificial coma from which after two months he 'miraculously' recovered;

then came the reports someone stole his medical records and this person(s?) wanted to auction them off in the internet (so WHY?- why would MS's medical records be so darned interesting?- obviously extortion but what would be so interesting to warrant extortion?)-

just today came the report/s in German media the alleged culprit just ONE DAY after his arrest 'suicided' (hanged) himself in his Swiss jail cell; so how was he able to access enough material to hang himself the day after his arrest?

according to today's issue of Germany's www.bild.de the Schumacher family was completely unaware of the extortionist's arrest (right- and I shot Kennedy)-

so my question: what could possibly have been contained in these medical records that had to be kept so secret to warrant the murder of someone trying to expose their content?; no-one can convince me the extortionist(s) just had conventional info about someone recovering from an induced coma (THAT interesting MS isn't!) so there simply has to be another motive behind this-

am just trying to connect dots-

please be well all-

Larry

[amor]

Is it safer to be poor and unimportant?

[Spacyman]

I admit that I also find this pretty odd. But he may only have thought the media would pay a lot of money for more information on Schumacher's health condition, since the family have been very discrete about it, for obvious reasons. But this really is a strange "coincidence"..

[Gardener]

I agree Cardillac. The whole F1 scene stinks to me, the accident was pretty bizzar to say the least, and this recent theft and suicide doesn't stack up. Then there is the creepy ecclestone guy buying his way out of a tax revenue fraud.
Just writing about it makes me feel slimed..............

[Nasu]

Posted by Gardener (here)
I agree Cardillac. The whole F1 scene stinks to me, the accident was pretty bizzar to say the least, and this recent theft and suicide doesn't stack up. Then there is the creepy ecclestone guy buying his way out of a tax revenue fraud.
Just writing about it makes me feel slimed..............

You said it. Slimed is right. I nearly fell off my chair when I read about Berny's bribery thing, it seems that, because of unspecified mitigating circumstances and his age, by law, in Germany, under these circumstances, a defendant can buy their way out of the whole bribery thing, for the right price!!! Funny thing is the banker Berny bribed has been given eight plus years in prison... But at least Berny was innocent... Ironic is my last word, very very ironic.... N

Here's the bbc's take....

"F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone pays to end bribery trial

A German court has agreed to end the bribery trial of Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for a $100m (£60m) payment from him.

Mr Ecclestone's offer was based on an existing provision in German law.

Earlier on Tuesday German prosecutors accepted the offer from the 83-year-old billionaire who dominates motor racing.

He went on trial in April, accused of paying a German banker 33m euros (£26m; $44m) to ensure that a company he favoured could buy a stake in F1.

He denies wrongdoing.

The ruling means he walks free from the district court in Munich and can continue running the sport. It also means Mr Ecclestone is found neither guilty nor innocent.

His personal wealth is put at $4.2bn by Forbes, which ranks him as the 12th richest UK billionaire.

If found guilty, he could have faced a 10-year jail term and the end of his decades-long dominance of motor racing.
Gerhard Gribkowsky on trial in Munich, 24 October 2011 Gerhard Gribkowsky, seen here at the start of his trial in October 2011, is now serving a prison sentence

A BayernLB banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, was allegedly paid by Mr Ecclestone to ensure the F1 stake was bought by a company that he favoured, so that he would remain in charge of the sport.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in 2012 for accepting bribes.

Mr Ecclestone says the payment was given to Gribkowsky after the banker threatened to make false claims about the F1 boss's tax status.

Prosecutors said Mr Ecclestone's advanced age and other mitigating circumstances gave grounds to accept the $100m offer.

Mr Ecclestone has attended most of the hearings in person and arrived at the courthouse on Tuesday in a limousine, looking relaxed and accompanied by his wife, Fabiana Flosi.

Asked by Judge Peter Noll if he could raise the $100m, Mr Ecclestone replied "yes". When asked if the payment could be made within a week, his defence lawyer, Sven Thomas, said: "That's do-able."

Judge Noll ruled that $99m would go to the Bavarian state coffers while $1m would be donated to a children's hospital. The sum is believed to be a record for such a payment.

Court spokesperson Andrea Titz said Mr Ecclestone: "The court did not consider a conviction overwhelmingly likely from the present point of view.

"With this type of ending... there is no ruling on guilt or innocence of the defendant."
'Really insolent'

Under German law defendants can in certain circumstances "buy" termination of a trial. The legal proviso exists in order to ease the burden on the courts and to deal with cases where reaching a judgment could prove difficult.

However a lawyer quoted by the Spiegelonline website, Franz Bielefeld, said it was unusual for the clause to be invoked in mid-trial - more often it is done before a trial starts.

Former Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, of the Liberal FDP party, criticised use of the loophole in the Ecclestone case, saying it was "not just bad taste - it's really insolent".

She said it allowed rich people to go free, whereas the less well-heeled could face prison."

[jake gittes]

LOL. So the way out of a bribery charge is... to bribe?

The miraculous recovery mystery is interesting. Two possible scenarios that would want the permanent hush-hush of the records thief: 1) fraudulent injury/recovery reportage; 2) "other-worldly" intervention...

[Ellisa]

I don't think there has been a 'miraculous recovery'. He has been discharged from intensive care and his family is rich enough to set up the sort of care he will need for the rest of his life, much like Christopher Reeve needed. The rest of us would go to a nursing home or be nursed at home by family members for the rest of our lives.

There seem to have been no photos of him since the crash, and he has done no interviews. As far as I can make out he has on occasion opened his eyes a bit. His brain has suffered huge damage, and his medical records would have given the greedy waiting public their vicarious thrills. Apparently the staff member of the hospital felt the true degree of shame his betrayal for cash of Schumacher's misfortune and the subsequent breaking of Schumacher's privacy brought on him.

It is another of those things that is none of our business.

[steveofengland]

I think it could be the case that the family / doctors have said he's on the road to recovery, while in actual fact he's been reduced to a vegetative state and, like the royals they want hide this fact?