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BERLIN - GERMAN prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that the country's richest woman, Ms Susanne Klatten, was blackmailed for millions of euros by an ex-lover, a spokesman and media said on Sunday.
'We have been carrying out an investigation for several months,' Mr Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors, told AFP.
Italian authorities also opened an inquiry, he said.
Ms Klatten, who holds a large stake in automaker BMW and Altana specialty chemical company, allegedly paid 7.5 million euros (S$14.2 million) to a Swiss Helg Sgarbi to stop him from publishing compromising photos and videos of the couple's relationship, the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag reported.
The 41-year-old suspect was taken into custody by German authorities some weeks ago, Mr Schmidt-Sommerfeld said.
The heiress to the Quandt family fortune and mother of three children 'filed a complaint for fraud and blackmail in January 2008 with a Munich court,' he added.
Mr Schmidt-Sommerfeld said that Sgarbi started blackmailing Ms Klatten from August 2007 when he asked for a loan of several million euros, before demanding a much higher 'ransom' for the footage - as much as 40 million euros, according to German media reports.
Italian media allege that Sgarbi and Ms Klatten met in a Munich hotel, while a 63-year-old Italian man filmed the couple having sex from a next-door bedroom.
Ms Klatten has a personal fortune of 7.8 billion euros, according to German's Manager Magazin.
As yet no photos or videos have been released. -- AFP
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