Bankrupt Becker had to borrow £2m from UK phone billionaire
... at 25% interest rate
BORIS Becker borrowed £2million from a British mobile phone tycoon at 25 per cent interest in a bid to solve his money worries.
The tennis star’s fortune has dwindled after a costly divorce and a series of bad business deals, and he’s now been declared bankrupt.
When his money problems began to bite three years ago, he turned to the billionaire founder of Phones4U, John Caudwell. And he accepted a £2million loan despite an interest rate that rivals those of some credit card companies.
The parlous state of the former Wimbledon winner’s finances emerged in June when a London court declared him bankrupt over a £3.3million debt. But it swiftly became clear that he was being chased for tens of millions more.
Now it has been revealed that Becker is said to owe as much as £54.1million, and fears ending up in prison.
His lawyers claim his liabilities are ‘significantly lower’, but there is a sense of mounting financial crisis. Becker,
‘Forced to sell his trophies’
who commentates for the BBC on Wimbledon where he took his first major title aged 17, may even be forced to sell his trophies to help settle his bills. Embarrassingly, he has been barred from moving them from his London home.
Yesterday it seemed that Becker’s financial woes did not stop him from taking part in a poker tournament. He was pictured at the Partypoker Grand Prix in Austria.
He promotes the championships and his entry fees are paid for him, but players may still need to fork out £3,000 a hand.
The ex-champion had become friends with mobile phone mogul Mr Caudwell through the businessman’s financial adviser. Becker even gave a personal assistant job to Mr Caudwell’s daughter Rhiannon in the tennis star’s London office.
But in 2014 Becker needed money, a spokesman for Mr Caudwell told The Times. The tycoon’s financial adviser is said to have told him that without the loan there was a strong chance the sportsman could ‘go to jail in Spain’.
The resulting £2million highinterest short-term loan was paid, but a little late.
The 49-year- old German is said to have amassed up to £100million during his tennis career. However, a fabulously expensive divorce after his infamous encounter with a woman in a restaurant broom cupboard, and a series of bad business decisions, have led him into financial difficulties.
The new details of the sporting hero’s bankruptcy have emerged in a report compiled by accountants Smith and Williamson, which is administering his affairs.
He is said to owe up to £10million to London bank Arbuthnot Latham and Co, and a further £32million demanded by his Swiss former business partner dr Hans-dieter Cleven.
Accountants say further cash demands from other creditors are ‘probable’.
Becker has tried to claim his sprawling villa in Majorca is worth many millions – but it has failed to sell before. An expert valuation has also suggested his assets after mortgages are taken into account amount to less than £500,000.
That figure does not include the family home in Wimbledon he shares with second wife Lilly, 40, and their son Amadeus, seven, nor a house he is understood to have in Switzerland.
He also is understood to own a London flat. Becker’s barrister told the London bankruptcy court in June that the Wimbledon star was ‘not sophisticated when it comes to finance’.