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Jurors retire to decide fate of tennis star Boris Becker
The six-time Grand Slam winner is accused of concealing assets including two of his three Wimbledon men's singles trophies.
Picture File: Former tennis star Boris Becker returns to the Southwark Crown Court after having a lunch break on the first day of his trial over allegedly concealing assets, including medals, Wimbledon trophies and properties from bankruptcy trustees in London, last month. Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The jury in the London trial of Boris Becker retired on Wednesday to consider its verdicts in a case in which the German is accused of failing to hand over trophies he won after he was declared bankrupt in 2017.
The six-time Grand Slam winner, who denies 24 charges under Britain’s Insolvency Act, is accused of concealing assets including two of his three Wimbledon men’s singles trophies and his 1992 Olympic doubles gold medal.
Becker is also accused of hiding 1.13 million euros ($1.23 million) from the sale of a Mercedes car dealership he owned in Germany.
The 54-year-old 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 £2.25 million ($2.9 million) London flat occupied by his daughter Anna Ermakova.
Becker, who has been supported during his trial at Southwark Crown Court by his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, has a previous conviction for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion in Germany in 2002, the court has heard.
Jurors previously heard Becker’s bankruptcy resulted from a 4.6 million euro loan from private bank Arbuthnot Latham in 2013, and £1.2 million, with a 25 percent interest rate, borrowed from a British businessman the following year.
The court heard the former world number one earned a “vast amount” of money, winning about $50 million in prize money and sponsorship deals.
But Becker, who went on to coach current world number one player Novak Djokovic, said his earnings “reduced dramatically” following his retirement in 1999.
He said he was involved in an “expensive divorce” from ex-wife Barbara Becker in 2001, which included high maintenance payments to their two sons.
Giving evidence during the trial, which began on March 21, Becker denied giving bankruptcy officials the “runaround” over missing trophies, saying that was “not correct”.
