The playboy, the BMW heiress and the sex blackmail

MUNICH, March 9 – The case of a Swiss playboy who allegedly seduced Germany’s richest woman, defrauded her of millions of euros and tried to blackmail her out of millions more by revealing details of their sexual encounters, is to be laid bare today in a Munich courtroom where he is due to go on trial.

In a case that has become known as “the gigolo versus the billionaire”, Helg Sgarbi, 44, could face up to 15 years in jail if he is convicted of the crimes against Susanne Klatten, the heir of BMW and the 55th richest person in the world, and five other women.

Prosecutors claim Sgarbi blackmailed a string of rich women across Europe, including a countess who was more than 50 years his senior, who has since died.

Sgarbi’s luck allegedly ran out when he filmed a sexual encounter between himself and Klatten in a Holiday Inn room and allegedly threatened to send the material to the board of BMW and her husband if she did not give him €49m (£43m).

In a blackmail letter he wrote to her: “While your risk is very high, my risks are irrelevant.”

Despite the humiliation she was forced to endure, Klatten, 46, whose reputation is that of a serious businesswoman who keeps a low profile, went straight to the police, who arrested Sgarbi at a motorway service station in 2007.

Police investigators described Sgarbi as a smooth operator who knew exactly how to win the trust of the women he seduced.

He told them he was a “special Swiss representative in crisis zones,” which enabled him to flit between the women at short notice and with very little explanation. One woman bought wedding rings after Sgarbi proposed marriage, while another took out a high-interest, multi-million-euro loan on his behalf.

But Klatten, a member of the Quandt clan who is worth £9.25bn according to the Forbes Rich List, was allegedly his biggest conquest. They met at an exclusive health resort in Innsbruck in July 2007, allegedly beginning an affair in the south of France the following month, and later meeting in a Holiday Inn in Munich for an intimate encounter which either Sgarbi or an accomplice is believed to have filmed.

In September, investigators claim that Klatten fell for his story that he had injured a girl in a car crash in Florida and urgently needed €7m to pay off her family, which he said he would pay back.

Klatten later told police how she had handed over the money – a cardboard box containing 14,000 €500 bank notes - in the garage of the Holiday Inn.

Sgarbi then allegedly tried to persuade the mother-of-three to leave her husband for him, suggesting that she should put €290m into a trust fund to finance their life together.

Klatten ended the relationship whereupon Sgarbi allegedly demanded that she pay him €49m or he would release the compromising film footage.

If Sgarbi pleads guilty, the trial is expected to end swiftly. If he exercises his right to silence, Klatten, and the other six women he allegedly defrauded will be called to give evidence against him. – Guardian