The precarious monetary scenario of Mr. Becker has been beneath scrutiny for a number of years.
In 2017, a personal financial institution in London, Arbuthnot Latham, made an software for chapter proceedings in opposition to Mr. Becker, claiming that fee of a big debt owed by him was practically two years overdue. He was quickly declared formally bankrupt by a London courtroom, which discovered that he couldn’t repay his money owed.
That very same 12 months, a Swiss court rejected a declare by a former Swiss enterprise companion, who claimed Mr. Becker owed him greater than $40 million.
As he fended off his collectors, in 2018, Mr. Becker sought to say diplomatic immunity, as a result of the Central African Republic had named him as its attaché to the European Union for sports activities, tradition and humanitarian affairs.
If that declare had been granted, any motion in opposition to Mr. Becker would have required the approval of the international secretary, who on the time was Boris Johnson, the present prime minister. However Mr. Becker ultimately dropped the declare.
In 2002, Mr. Becker was convicted in Germany of earnings tax evasion, given two years’ probation and fined practically $300,000. The decision got here six years after German tax investigators raided Mr. Becker’s residence in Munich.
On Friday, the choose, Deborah Taylor, referred to that case, saying that Mr. Becker “didn’t heed the warning you got and the possibility you got” — a reference to the truth that he had been spared jail time — and that this was “a major aggravating issue” within the present proceedings.
Mr. Becker won millions of dollars in prize cash and sponsorship offers. He has had a number of enterprise ventures over time, together with a line of branded tennis gear. He has usually appeared as a tv commentator for the BBC at Wimbledon, and he coached Novak Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked men’s singles player, for a number of years.