BMW Blackmailing Swordsman Gets Six Years

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Susanne Klatten, Germany’s wealthiest woman, and a member of the Quandt family—the leading shareholders in carmaker BMW—bid good-bye to a former lover. Helg Sgarbi was jailed for six years on Monday for trying to blackmail (with secret video of their lovemaking) the heiress to the BMW car empire, Reuters reports.

Helg Sgarbi admitted that he had seduced heiress Susanne Klatten and three other wealthy women, persuading them to pay him almost 10 million euros ($12.64 million). Klatten went public last year with the story of how her lover secretly shot intimate footage and later demanded tens of million of euros not to reveal it. Sgarbi’s admission spared Klatten, who is rarely seen in public, a court appearance.


Leafing through the defendant’s curriculum vitae, Judge Gilbert Wolf read from a glowing job reference from investment bank Credit Suisse, describing Sgarbi’s role there as a specialist in mergers and acquisitions—apparently he hadn’t lost his touch.

Newspapers had reported that Sgarbi had sought to justify his actions as revenge for his Jewish grandfather’s forced labor in Quandt family factories during the war. But no mention was made of this claim on Monday. The Quandt dynasty had close ties to the Nazi party and built its fortune supplying German army and railway worker uniforms. The first wife of Klatten’s grandfather went on to marry Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Bimmer Bimmer on Mar 09, 2009

    And what about three other women? Who did their families forced to work? And enough with Jewish people milking cow that only they had suffered (I don't deny that). However, two of my great aunts were taken from former Soviet Union during the war to forced labor camps and I don't cry about it and don't try to get money for that.

  • John Horner John Horner on Mar 09, 2009

    Seems like she could have found a much better plaything than that guy! One must wonder what her husband and three children think about her poor taste.

  • Dilbert Dilbert on Mar 09, 2009

    I guess a link to the video is out of the question?

  • Michael Ayoub Michael Ayoub on Mar 10, 2009

    Rule 34.

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