EOn Friday, the criminal chamber of the Karlsruhe Regional Court sentenced a 53-year-old man to seven years in prison for particularly severe extortion and causing an explosive device. In 2019, the perpetrator had extorted the equivalent of half a million euros in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin from the drugstore chain dm. In order to substantiate his claim, the man had detonated an explosive device in a dm branch in Freiburg at night. There was property damage of 20,000 euros, nobody was injured in the incident.
The man had confessed to his crime at trial. The trained carer gave the motive for professional burnout and financial security until retirement age. In addition to his prison sentence, the man has to pay half a million euros to dm. A court spokesman said on request that the criminal court had ordered a corresponding compensation, so that additional proceeds from Bitcoin should be taken into account.
The convict, who last lived in Constance and Switzerland, had already signaled during the proceedings that he wanted to forego the profits. According to the court, German investigators were able to secure a sum of 370,000 euros. In Switzerland, the authorities are also said to have confiscated a motor yacht belonging to the perpetrator. With the verdict, the criminal chamber remained subject to the request of the public prosecutor, who for their part had demanded nine years’ imprisonment for the accused. The judgment is not yet final (Az. 3 KLs 630 Js 46841/21).