Tennis star Boris Becker jailed for 2.5 years over bankruptcy dishonesty

Tennis champion Boris Becker was jailed for two-and-a-half years after being found guilty for deliberately ignoring the terms of his bankruptcy agreement.

Becker, a three-time Wimbledon winner, was accused of “deliberately and dishonestly” putting funds out of reach of creditors. Becker, who was declared bankrupt in 2017 with debts of more than 40 million pounds ($50.3 million), previously said that his career earnings were used up in his divorce as well as “expensive lifestyle commitments.”

London Judge Deborah Taylor said Becker had lost his career and his reputation.

The sentence caps a remarkable fall from grace for the youngest ever winner of the mens singles at Wimbledon and former world number one. Becker, 54, was convicted by a London jury of four offenses including the removal of hundreds of thousands of euros of cash from business accounts as well as hiding a bank loan from the bankruptcy estate. Prosecutors called it a “breach of trust.” 

A lawyer for Becker said the tennis star was acquitted on the overwhelming majority of counts. The funds were transferred for child maintenance payments and to pay off his household expenses.

Jonathan Laidlaw had asked for a suspended two-year jail sentence, saying there was no evidence of any fraud or even any sophisticated financial planning. Becker’s “financial affairs were a mess and they were chaotic.”

“Boris Becker has literally nothing. And there is nothing to show for what was the most glittering of sporting careers,” Laidlaw said, calling it the “most public of humiliations.”