The statements made by his former IT specialist are “largely correct,” explained the star chef.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich, Dusseldorf The second day of the trial against star chef Alfons Schuhbeck, who is accused of tax evasion, began with a big surprise: the 73-year-old made an extensive confession before the Munich I Regional Court. “I did some things wrong,” he said on Wednesday. “I fooled myself, my friends and acquaintances and also my defense lawyers until the very end because I didn’t want to admit that I had failed entrepreneurially.”
He “repeatedly used the opportunity to reduce sales and thereby took money out of the cash register,” said Schuhbeck. The public prosecutor accuses the restaurateur of using a computer program to smuggle revenue past the tax office. In total, there are more than 2.3 million euros in taxes that Schuhbeck is said to have evaded between 2009 and 2016.
The investigators are largely based on the statements of a former employee of Schuhbeck. The IT specialist, who was also accused, already heavily incriminated Schuhbeck at the start of the trial last week. He reported that Schuhbeck had instructed him to manipulate the cash register system at the Orlando restaurant in order to reduce the registered daily takings.
Schuhbeck has now confirmed that this tool existed. The statements made by his former employee are “largely correct,” said the star chef, who was silent at the start of the trial.
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Schuhbeck said he couldn’t explain where all the money went. He “above all plugged financial holes and supported my children in their education”. He wanted to enable them to study, which he was unable to complete himself.
“I didn’t squander the money on a life of luxury (…),” says Schuhbeck. “I don’t play either.” He doesn’t have “other vices” either. “I don’t have any foreign accounts buried or anything else.”
Schuhbeck’s defenders had sharply criticized investigators
Schuhbeck’s confession could significantly shorten the process, which was initially scheduled for 18 appointments, and should also have a mitigating effect. On the first day of the hearing, it still looked like a confrontational process. Schuhbeck’s defense attorneys accused the prosecutors of having investigated poorly and not objectively. “To date, the investigative authorities have not been able to provide any indication, let alone proof, for the assumption that Mr. Schuhbeck has actually manipulated the tills,” it said in their opening statement.
Schuhbeck was demonstrably not even in Munich on certain days of the manipulation. They also asked whether third parties might not have had access to the checkout system. The inconsistencies found could ultimately show that Schuhbeck was “not the perpetrator, but the victim”. This theory is now obsolete with the confession.
Despite his confession, Schuhbeck faces imprisonment. According to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe in 2012, a prison sentence without probation is generally to be imposed for tax evasion from a sum of one million euros.
With agency material
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