Tennis great Boris Becker was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison Friday for hiding his assets after declaring bankruptcy.
The six-time Grand Slam champion was convicted under the United Kingdom’s Insolvency Act for illegally transferring money and concealing his assets after he filed for bankruptcy. He faced a maximum of seven years in jail.
Becker, 54, transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars after filing for bankruptcy in 2017 to several other bank accounts. Some of those accounts belonged to two ex-wives, according to prosecutors. Also, he did not declare owning real estate in Germany and he hid an $871,000 bank loan.
Judge Deborah Taylor said Becker would serve half his sentence, CNN reported.
He was found not guilty on 20 other charges, including failure to forfeit Wimbledon trophies and an Olympic gold medal.
Becker became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon at age 17 in 1985 and later became the top-ranked player in the world. He also won the Australian Open twice and the U.S. Open once.
• Peter Santo can be reached at psanto@washingtontimes.com.
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