Boris Becker found guilty of four charges under Insolvency Act News

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Boris Becker found guilty of four charges under Insolvency Act

By Daily Sports Nigeria on April 8, 2022

Boris Becker was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of four charges; he was acquitted of a further 20 counts relating to his 2017 bankruptcy; the six-time Grand Slam champion will return for sentencing on April 29.

Becker, who was supported throughout the trial by his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, was declared guilty of charges including removal of property, two counts of failing to disclose estate and concealing debt.

Judge Deborah Taylor released Becker on conditional bail ahead of sentencing on April 29, when he could face a jail sentence carrying a maximum term of seven years for each count.

Becker was declared bankrupt on June 21 2017 over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Mallorca, Spain. He had been accused of hiding millions of pounds worth of assets, including two Wimbledon trophies, to avoid paying his debts.

The German national, who has lived in the UK since 2012, claimed he had cooperated with trustees tasked with securing his assets, even offering up his wedding ring, and had acted on expert advice.

The three-time Wimbledon champion told a jury his $50m (about £38m) career earnings were swallowed up by an expensive divorce from his first wife Barbara Becker, child maintenance payments, and "expensive lifestyle commitments".

Becker said he was "shocked" and "embarrassed" when he was declared bankrupt.

The court was told Becker received €1.13m (about £950,000) from the sale of a Mercedes car dealership he owned in Germany, which was paid into a business account used as his "piggy bank" for personal expenses.

He was found guilty of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds to other accounts, including those of his ex-wife Barbara and estranged wife Sharlely 'Lilly' Becker, the mother of his fourth child.

He was also convicted of failing to declare a property in Germany, and hiding an €825,000 (almost £700,000) bank loan and shares in a tech firm.

The 20 charges he was acquitted of included nine counts of failing to hand over trophies and medals from his tennis career.

Becker was cleared of failing to declare a second German property, as well as his interest in the £2.5m Chelsea flat occupied by his daughter Anna Ermakova.

Giving evidence, Becker said he earned a "vast amount" during his career, paying cash for a family home in Munich, a property in Miami and the estate in Mallorca, which was worth about €50m at the height of the property market.

But Becker, who went on to coach current world No 1 Novak Djokovic, work as a commentator and act as a brand ambassador for firms including Puma, said his income "reduced dramatically" following his retirement in 1999.

He said he was involved in an "expensive divorce" from Barbara Becker in 2001, which involved high maintenance payments to their two sons, and had to support Ms Ermakova and her mother.

Becker, who was resident in Monte Carlo and Switzerland before moving to the UK, said he had "expensive lifestyle commitments", including his £22,000-a-month rented house in Wimbledon, south-west London.

He also owed the Swiss authorities five million francs (about £4m) and separately just under €1m (more than £800,000) in liabilities over a conviction for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion in Germany in 2002.

The court heard Becker's bankruptcy resulted from a €4.6m (about £3.85m) loan from private bank Arbuthnot Latham in 2013, and £1.2m, with a 25 per cent interest rate, borrowed from British businessman John Caudwell, who founded Phones 4u, the following year.

He said bad publicity had damaged "brand Becker", meaning he struggled to make enough money to pay off his debts, while his QC Jonathan Laidlaw said at the time of his bankruptcy Becker was too "trusting and reliant" on his advisers.

Source Sky Sports

Posted April 8, 2022