Gigolo Goes on Trial for Extorting BMW Heiress Susanne Klatten

It was a case that made all the headlines in European newspapers: “Swiss gigolo” Helg Sgarbi romanced BMW heiress Susanne Klatten, taped their encounter and then threatened to sell the tape to the media if she did not pay him €14 million ($17.5 million). Now, Sgarbi will face the music and legally answer for his deeds, as his trial is scheduled to begin on Monday, in what has been described as the scandal of the year, as Spiegel Online informs.

Sgarbi was not just a one-time predator, as he had made a habit out of conning wealthy, single women and then ripping them off, the same media outlet reports. It is precisely this that makes the trial a much-mediated affair, as also is the suspicion that he was connected with the Italian mafia, which had him do their dirty deeds. More specifically, Spiegel says, Sgarbi could be just a tool for shadow man Ernano Barretta (63), who operates from Rome and has him gathering money for him. Baretta, though, is not cited in court documents.

“Sgarbi’s arrest in a drab parking lot put an end to the criminal career of a gigolo who had charmed his way into the lonely hearts of wealthy women. Sgarbi was a man who traded in grand emotions, using them to create addiction and dependency in his female victims, until their ecstasy turned into a horror trip, complete with threats, blackmail and demands for money. Before Klatten, Sgarbi’s modus operandi was to secretly videotape his amorous encounters with women and then blackmail them by threatening to release the images to the media.” Spiegel informs.

Because of the attempted blackmail, which took place on February 14 this year, when Sgarbi contacted Klatten asking for money in return for his silence, he now faces a maximum of 15 years in jail on seven counts of fraud, attempted fraud and attempted extortion. The media has been extremely kind on Klatten, a married woman and a mother, who risked it all to expose the 44-year-old man for what he did, by calling the police instead of simply giving him the outrageous sum he was asking.

Susanne Klatten, usually a very reclusive person, is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 55th richest woman in the world, and is Germany’s wealthiest lady.