The German Boris Becker was discharged from a London bankruptcy court after a judge found on Wednesday that he had done “everything he could reasonably do” to repay his creditors tens of millions of pounds.
Becker barely paid his creditors 50 million pounds (58.5 million euros) that he owedbut Insolvency and Companies Court chief judge Nicholas Briggs said it would be “perverse” not to conclude the case because of Becker’s efforts.
“On the spectrum of bankruptcies from ‘working as hard as possible and doing everything possible to thwart trustee investigations’ to ‘cooperative, providing information and returning assets,’ clearly on the right side of the spectrum Mr. Becker wrote.
Becker, 56, was deported to Germany two years ago after serving 8 months in a London jail for illegally transferring large sums of money and hiding £2.5 million (€3 million) in assets after admitting a loss in 2017.
He was convicted in a London court on four charges under the Insolvency Act, including asset forfeiture, debt concealment and two charges of non-disclosure of assets. He was acquitted of 25 other charges, including nine for failing to turn over Grand Slam trophies and his Olympic gold medal to bankruptcy trustees. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, but was released early under the expedited deportation program for foreigners.
Becker rose to fame in 1985, at the age of 17, when he became the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon singles title. He became number 1 in the world, won two All England titles, two Australian Open and one US Open He retired from professional tennis in 1999 and worked as a coach, television commentator, investor and popular poker player.
Becker blamed laziness and bad advice for his financial woes, which led him to declare bankruptcy after he owed his creditors nearly €58.5 million for an unpaid loan.
Becker’s attorney, Louis Doyle, He said the two sides had reached an agreement that included a “substantial sum” to be paid by the tennis great. The deal “includes the rest of the trophies,” Doyle said, adding that Becker “couldn’t have done more than he did to get us to this point.”
Source: La Verdad
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