Boris Becker is rid of his prison clothes, but his debts are far from over. The insolvency proceedings continue, even if Becker now lives in Germany again. Because of his conviction, it has been made even worse.
Barely eight months after his conviction, Boris Becker is a free man again. He was released last week as part of a program in the UK that sees foreign prisoners returned to their home countries. Since then he has been living in Germany again. However, he will not be rid of his debts with the release.
Violations of bankruptcy law had brought Becker to prison in the first place. In the proceedings started in Great Britain in 2017, he concealed assets worth around three million euros – including a house in his hometown of Leimen and several blocks of shares.
Overall, Becker had accumulated debts of 59 million euros. This is what the responsible British bankruptcy court estimated in 2017. That debt hasn’t gone away because the ex-tennis star spent a few months in jail. According to British law, the remaining debts would actually be deleted after three years, but this rule was overridden by the court due to Becker’s delay in bankruptcy.
As a German citizen, Boris Becker was able to make use of British insolvency law because it can be proven that he had lived on the island for years. He no longer does that after the expulsion, he will probably not even be allowed to enter the country until the end of October 2024. This leads to discussions as to whether the British procedure will continue to be recognized in Germany. When asked by t-online.de, Becker’s lawyer Christian Oliver Moser explained that there were no separate insolvency proceedings against Becker in Germany. It can therefore be assumed that the British proceedings will continue.
There are conflicting statements about this. Bild.de reported this week that Becker’s remaining debt was only around 435,000 euros. Other media reports that he still has to cede part of all his income to the insolvency administrator by 2031. What is certain is that Becker has paid around four million euros since the beginning of the proceedings. For example, he had sold memorabilia from his active days as a tennis pro, an apartment in his hometown of Leimen and jewelry. The money was not only used to pay off debts, but also to pay for the insolvency administrator, lawyers and experts.
Becker is not the first prominent German athlete to come into conflict with the judiciary over financial matters. Uli Hoeneß also had to go to prison. The ex-soccer player and manager of Bayern Munich was sentenced to three years and six months in prison in 2014 for tax evasion of around 28.5 million euros. He was released halfway through his sentence in 2016. Hoeneß paid his tax debts of around 30 million euros during his imprisonment.
It is important to know that Becker was concerned with violations of insolvency proceedings and not with tax evasion. Different laws apply here per se, and the processes took place in different countries.
With his interview with ProSieben.Sat1 alone, Becker is said to have received a fee of around 500,000 euros. A book contract of a similar amount is currently being negotiated, and he is also receiving a high fee from Apple TV for a multi-part documentary about his life.
It is unclear whether and how much of this income he has to give to his insolvency administrator. Becker himself said last year that he had to give up around half of all income. Other media reported that Becker’s current income was not immediately added to his assets, so he did not automatically have to cede a part, but nevertheless had to pay off his remaining debts independently.
The truth will probably lie somewhere in the middle. Usually, income above a certain amount is used to settle debts in insolvency proceedings. In Germany, this is the attachable part of the income. This in turn is calculated according to the financial needs of the debtor. So it is higher if someone has to make maintenance payments for others.
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