Boris Becker jailed for two years for hiding assets after bankruptcy
Boris Becker has been jailed for two years and six months for hiding millions of pounds’ worth of assets after being made bankrupt in June 2017.
Sentencing Becker, the judge, Deborah Taylor, said: “I take into account what has been described as your ‘fall from grace’. You have lost your career and reputation and all of your property as a result of your bankruptcy.”
But she added: “You have not shown remorse, acceptance of your guilt and have sought to distance yourself from your offending and your bankruptcy. While I accept your humiliation as part of the proceedings, there has been no humility.”
The former tennis star, sentenced under the Insolvency Act, will serve half the full prison term. He was found guilty of four charges by a jury at Southwark crown court this month but acquitted of a further 20 counts relating to his 2017 bankruptcy. He had faced a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
Becker was handed a two-year suspended sentence for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion worth €1.7m (about £1.4m) in Germany in 2002. Referring to that conviction, the judge said: “You did not heed the warning you were given and the chance you were given by the suspended sentence and that is a significant aggravating factor.”
Becker, wearing a striped tie in Wimbledon’s purple and green colours, walked into the courthouse hand in hand with his girlfriend, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro. His son Noah had also attended, carrying a large Puma bag.
The six-time grand slam champion had denied all the charges, saying he had cooperated with trustees tasked with securing his assets – even offering up his wedding ring – and had acted on expert advice.
But at the sentencing hearing on Friday, the prosecutor, Rebecca Chalkley, said Becker had acted “deliberately and dishonestly” and that he was “still seeking to blame others”.
The defence attorney, Jonathan Laidlaw, argued for leniency, saying his client had not spent money on a “lavish lifestyle” but rather on child support, rent and legal and business expenses. Becker, he told the court, had experienced “public humiliation” and had no future earnings potential.
Becker’s bankruptcy stemmed from a €4.6m loan from a private bank in 2013, as well as about $1.6m borrowed from a British businessman the year after, according to testimony at the trial.
During the trial Becker, said his $50m (£40m) career earnings had been swallowed up by payments for an “expensive divorce” and debts when he lost large chunks of his income after retirement.
But the judge took into account the lengths to which Becker went to avoid paying his debts, including failing to declare his share in a £1m property in his home town of Leimen, Germany, hiding an €825,000 (almost £700,000) bank loan, worth £1.1m with interest, and concealing 75,000 shares in a tech business valued at £66,000.
Matthew Carter, a partner in the National Bankruptcy Centre at the international audit, tax and advisory firm Mazars, said: “Today’s verdict reaffirms the serious consequences for those who fail to comply with their legal obligations as a bankrupt under the Insolvency Act.”
“Mr Becker failed to declare significant assets in his bankruptcy and this sentence serves as a stark warning to those who attempt to hide their assets,” he added. “There are no winners in this unfortunate case, and it is imperative that anybody facing financial difficulty seeks specialist insolvency advice as early as possible to avoid issues escalating to this extent.”
The chief executive of the Insolvency Service, Dean Beale, said: “Boris Becker’s sentence clearly demonstrates that concealing assets in bankruptcy is a serious offence for which we will prosecute and bring offenders to justice.”