London, March 30, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) – The British bankruptcy trial of six-time Grand Slam tennis champion Boris Becker, was halted on Wednesday after two jurors tested positive for Covid-19.
Proceedings had been due to resume at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday but were adjourned until Monday, pending further tests.
Becker, who won 49 singles titles in 77 finals in 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 €1.13 million ($1.25 million) 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 court was told.
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 Sharley “Lilly” Becker.
He also allegedly failed to declare two German properties, as well as his interest in a £2.25 million ($2.95 million) flat in Chelsea, west London, occupied by his daughter Anna Ermakova, and hid an €825,000 euro bank loan, as well as shares in a technology firm.
Becker, who is being supported in 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 was told.
Jurors previously heard Becker’s bankruptcy resulted from a €4.6-million loan from private bank Arbuthnot Latham in 2013, and £1.2 million, with a 25% interest rate, borrowed from British businessman John Caudwell 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 tennis 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, involving high maintenance payments to their two sons, and had to support his daughter Anna Ermakova and her mother, in a deal that included a £2.5 million Chelsea flat.
German national Becker, who was resident in Monte Carlo and Switzerland before moving to Britain in 2012, said he had “expensive lifestyle commitments.”
He also owed the Swiss authorities 5 million francs (about %5.4 million) and separately just under €1 million euros in liabilities regarding a conviction for tax evasion and attempted tax evasion in Germany in 2002.
GNA