April 24, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Legendary Boris Becker sentenced to prison

A London court has sentenced tennis legend 54-year-old Boris Becker to 2.5 years in prison for hiding assets after being declared bankrupt.

The famous German sportsman was convicted of illegally transferring large sums to third party accounts and hiding assets after he was declared bankrupt. After hearing arguments from the defense and the prosecution, Royal Court Judge Deborah Taylor announced the verdict on Friday 29 April.

Boris Becker was found guilty of taking property worth a total of about 427 thousand euros from the property, although restrictions were imposed on her in connection with his bankruptcy. In addition, he was found guilty of withholding information about the ownership of real estate in Germany, concealing a loan from Bank Alpinum in Liechtenstein in the amount of 825 thousand euros and owning shares in Breaking Data Corp.

At the same time, the athlete was acquitted by the jury on twenty other counts. On their list is the fact that Becker did not pass numerous awards, including two Wimbledon awards and an Olympic gold medal.

The six-time Grand Slam winner and two-time Davis Cup winner faced 24 charges related to the period from May to October 2017. At the time, Becker was declared bankrupt due to debts owed to a private bank, Arbuthnot Latham & Co. The athlete then said:

“A bunch of anonymous bankers and bureaucrats forced me to declare bankruptcy without good reason, which caused me both financial and reputational damage.”

Boris Becker is the winner of 49 ATP tournaments in singles. During his career, he, according to some data, earned approximately 22 million euros. However, a series of not-too-successful investments, divorce and problems with the tax authorities led the athlete to bankruptcy, says Deutsche Welle.



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