Bad Times For Becker
July 22, 2002
Boris Becker's partner in the Internet sports company Sportgate is taking the former tennis star to court over financial dealings with the now bankrupt firm.
According to a report in the German weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Paulus Neef has sued for damages in the Munich regional court against Becker for feeling "conned".
Sportgate chief Helmut Thoma had accused Neef of failing to provide funds for the company at the time it was declared insolvent. According to Bild, however, Neef and Sportgate insolvency administrator Hartwig Albers have written documentation that Becker pledged 1.5 million euro ($1.52 million) to the company and never delivered.
Albers' office told Bild it planned to sue Becker for the funds and would file a complaint in the coming week.
Sportgate AG was launched by Becker, a majority shareholder, in 2000 with great fanfare as an Internet site that would offer sports news, links and chatrooms for fans, amateur competitors and clubs. It declared bankruptcy about a year later.
Monaco: Tax heaven
Becker also faces an additional financial headache - and possible prison sentence - for tax evasion charges totalling some 6.5 million euro ($6.58 million), including interest.
German prosecutors filed charges against Becker earlier this month after an investigation of alleged tax evasion. He has allegedly claimed that his residence was in tax haven Monaco - for many tax heaven - in 1991 and 1992, while in fact living most of the time in the Munich area.
Becker and his lawyers will probably agree to make a deal with the Munich public prosecutor's office. But in return for the possible probation order, the star would have to confess and pay up - or even go to jail.
But the deal has not yet been settled. Becker's defense lawyers appear to be in some doubt as to whether to agree to it, or whether Becker should go to trial.
The tax case echoes the woes of Germany's other great tennis darling, Steffi Graf. Her father Peter spent nearly two years in jail after being convicted in 1997 of evading $7 million in tax on his daughter's earnings.