In 1997, with Luigi Capasso and Annunziata Lopez, at the request of Otello Lupacchini GIP in Rome, Brinkmann researched the circumstances of the death of Roberto Calvi.
Calvi, nicknamed "God's banker", was found hanged in London beneath Blackfriars Bridge in 1982 following the scandal concerning the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and the involvement of the Vatican Bank.
[6] In 2010, Brinkmann was named as an expert witness in the trial of Jörg Kachelmann by the defense but was rejected by the court as biased.
[7] In 2014, Boris Berezovsky's daughter Elizaveta requested a report from Brinkmann, with whom she had shared the autopsy photos, that noted the ligature mark on her father's neck was circular rather than V-shaped as is commonly the case with hanging victims, and called the coroner's attention to a statement by one of the responding paramedics who found it strange that Berezovsky's face was purple, rather than pale as hanging victims usually are.
The body also had a fresh wound on the back of the head and a fractured rib (injuries police believed Berezovsky could have suffered in the process of falling as he hanged himself).