Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone's Mother-in-Law Kidnapped and Held for $36.5M Ransom

Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone's mother-in-law was reportedly kidnapped and is now being held in Brazil for a ransom of $36.5M.

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Complex Original

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Aparecida Schunck, the mother-in-law of Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone, was reportedly abducted by a group of kidnappers in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Friday. The kidnappers have reportedly asked Ecclestone, who has a net worth of more than $3 billion according to Forbes, for $36.5 million in exchange for Schunck's safe return. The asking price is believed to be the largest ransom in the history of Brazil.

As of right now, Brazilian authorities haven't released many details about the kidnapping. They have only said that they "won't report details in order to protect the victim."

Schunck is the mother of Ecclestone's third wife Fabiana Flosi. Ecclestone met Flosi in 2009 when she was the Vice President of Marketing at the Brazilian Grand Prix and the couple was married in August 2012.

This is not the first time Ecclestone has been at the center of a kidnapping scandal. Back in 2011, a dental technician named Martin Peckham claimed he kidnapped Ecclestone's daughter Tamara and ordered Ecclestone to pay him more than $250,000 for her release. Police found that Peckham had not actually kidnapped Tamara, though, and he was later sentenced to serve five years in prison on blackmail charges.

According to the Daily Telegraph, kidnappings have been on the decline in Brazil over the last decade. They used to be a much bigger problem for the country, but the establishment of an anti-kidnapping division helped to suppress it and made kidnapping far less problematic over time.

Ecclestone is yet to comment publicly on his mother-in-law's kidnapping case.

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