Jury is out in trial of Boris Becker for ‘hiding assets in bankruptcy’
THE JURY in the trial of six-time Grand Slam tennis champion Boris Becker has retired to consider its verdicts.
Becker, who won 49 singles titles in 77 finals over 16 years, denies 24 charges under the Insolvency Act. The 54-year-old is accused of failing to hand over a number of awards after he was declared bankrupt in June 2017.
The prizes include two of his three Wimbledon men’s singles trophies, his 1992 Olympic gold medal, Australian Open trophies from 1991 and 1996, the President’s Cup from 1985 and 1989, his 1989 Davis Cup trophy, and a Davis Cup gold coin which he won in 1988.
Becker is also accused of hiding €1.13m (about £950,000) from the sale of a Mercedes car dealership he owned in Germany. The money is said to have been paid into his Boris Becker Private Office Ltd business account, which he used as a “piggy bank” to pay personal expenses, such as his children’s school fees, the trial at Southwark Crown Court has heard.
Becker is also said to have transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds to other accounts, including those of his ex-wife Barbara Becker and estranged wife Sharlely “Lilly” Becker. He also allegedly failed to declare two German properties, as well as his interest in a £2.25m flat in Chelsea, west London, occupied by his daughter Anna Ermakova, and hid an €825,000 (almost £700,000) bank loan as well as shares in a tech firm. Becker, who has been supported in court by his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, has a conviction for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion in Germany in 2002.
Jurors heard Becker’s bankruptcy resulted from a €4.6m (£3.85m) loan from private bank Arbuthnot Latham in 2013, and £1.2m, with a 25 per cent interest rate, borrowed from businessman John Caudwell the following year.
The court heard the former world number one earned a “vast amount” of money, winning $50m (about £38m) in prize money and sponsorship deals.