F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone with his wife Fabiana Flosi.
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Aparecida Schunk, the mother-in-law of Bernie Ecclestone, was kidnapped in São Paulo after being tricked by assailants posing as deliverymen, the Mirror reports.
Neither the police in Brazil nor Mr Ecclestone has yet commented on the reports.
The 67-year-old was abducted from her house in the Jardim Santa Helena district during the early hours of last Friday (local time), after two men claiming to be delivery drivers drove her out of the complex in her own vehicle.
A ransom of $36.5m (£28m) was demanded, but none was paid, according to Elisabete Sato of the Sao Paulo police.
Ecclestone, who Forbes magazine estimates is worth $US3.1 billion (NZ$4.36b) – along with his family – and one of the most powerful men in sport, married Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting her at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
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Police believe the kidnapping was carried out by a criminal gang based in Europe, and that it had evidently been planned for months. “It is a line of investigation the police are actively pursuing”. It is believed to be the highest amount demanded by kidnappers in the country’s history. For Ecclestone’s part, he has also declined to speak to reporters about the incident, but TMZ has reported that his daughters Tamara and Petra Ecclestone have been seen walking around Beverly Hills accompanied by a security detail of (at least) four bodyguards.
