Uli Hoeness, boss of superclub Bayern Munich, could face jail
Wednesday, Oct 7th 2015
By Allan Hall for MailOnline
Published: 14:27 GMT, 9 March 2014 | Updated: 15:09 GMT, 9 March 2014
German footballing legend Uli Hoeness - boss of European superclub Bayern Munich - goes on trial on Monday accused of stashing millions of pounds in undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.
Hoeness could face jail as well as a mammoth fine on tax evasion charges in a case that has riveted the nation.
Germany has cracked down hard on revenue cheats in recent years, many of them caught through bank whistleblowers who sold stolen bank computer discs to tax authorities for small fortunes with names, addresses and amounts stored on them.
The courtroom at the Palace of Justice in Munich, Germany, where Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness goes on trial
Hoeness, president of Germany's richest and most successful football club, turned himself into the taxman a year ago hoping for leniency.
Instead the revenue's lawyers are throwing the book at the 62-year-old, charging him with seven counts of evading £2.9 million euros in taxes. The full details of the prosecution case against him have still not been revealed.
Hoeness has so far clung to his job amid expressions of loyalty from fans, players and corporate sponsors such as Adidas, Audi, VW and Deutsche Telekom.
Hoeness has spent more than 40 years with the Bavarian sporting giants - first as player, helping win then West Germany the 1974 World Cup, then as team manager and, since 2009, as club president.
Hoeness said he was a compulsive stock market gambler, in a bid to explain his black money abroad.
He said he received a £8.4 million loan 'for gambling' in his Swiss bank account in 2001 from the late Robert Louis-Dreyfuss, then chief of club supplier and shareholder Adidas.
President Uli Hoeness (right) holding their Bundesliga trophy, with CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (centre) and their Champions League winners trophy and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger (left)
'At times I was trading day and night with sums that are hard for me to comprehend today, sometimes the amounts were extreme,' he said.
Such stock market speculation ended, he said, amid heavy losses in 2006 and the recession which followed in 2007.
Hoeness, worried about the heat being turned up on wealthy Germans like himself, went to the tax authorities on January 17 last year over an unspecified amount of unpaid taxes. It is understood he had been informed that the taxman was on his case.
On March 20, 2013, police raided his lakeside villa near Munich and presented him with an arrest warrant but released him on five million euros' bail.
Despite widespread criticism -- including from Chancellor Angela Merkel who voiced 'disappointment' - his initial offer to resign in May was rejected by the supervisory board of the club.
Charges were laid in July but not publicly released. Under German tax law, they remain secret until they are read out in court.
The trial is scheduled to last four days, with a verdict expected as early as Thursday. Speculation is that he might get up to a year in jail but this might be suspended.
Hoeness has said he will seek to convince the judge of his innocence.
'I am still of the opinion that my tax advisor's work was okay and the verdict must reflect that,' he said in a recent interview.
Early this year he told Bayern fans: 'I don't want to make myself into some sort of a saint, everyone knows that I made a big mistake. But I don't think that I have become a bad person.'
- Football legend Uli Hoeness, boss of superclub Bayern Munich, could face jail as he stands trial accused of tax evasion after stashing millions in a Swiss bank account
- Hoeness could face mammoth fine in a case which has riveted Germany
- Germany has cracked down hard on revenue cheats in recent years
- Hoeness is president of Germany's richest and most successful club
- He turned himself into the taxman a year ago hoping for leniency
By Allan Hall for MailOnline
Published: 14:27 GMT, 9 March 2014 | Updated: 15:09 GMT, 9 March 2014
German footballing legend Uli Hoeness - boss of European superclub Bayern Munich - goes on trial on Monday accused of stashing millions of pounds in undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland.
Hoeness could face jail as well as a mammoth fine on tax evasion charges in a case that has riveted the nation.
Germany has cracked down hard on revenue cheats in recent years, many of them caught through bank whistleblowers who sold stolen bank computer discs to tax authorities for small fortunes with names, addresses and amounts stored on them.
The courtroom at the Palace of Justice in Munich, Germany, where Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness goes on trial
Hoeness, president of Germany's richest and most successful football club, turned himself into the taxman a year ago hoping for leniency.
Instead the revenue's lawyers are throwing the book at the 62-year-old, charging him with seven counts of evading £2.9 million euros in taxes. The full details of the prosecution case against him have still not been revealed.
Hoeness has so far clung to his job amid expressions of loyalty from fans, players and corporate sponsors such as Adidas, Audi, VW and Deutsche Telekom.
Hoeness has spent more than 40 years with the Bavarian sporting giants - first as player, helping win then West Germany the 1974 World Cup, then as team manager and, since 2009, as club president.
Hoeness said he was a compulsive stock market gambler, in a bid to explain his black money abroad.
He said he received a £8.4 million loan 'for gambling' in his Swiss bank account in 2001 from the late Robert Louis-Dreyfuss, then chief of club supplier and shareholder Adidas.
President Uli Hoeness (right) holding their Bundesliga trophy, with CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (centre) and their Champions League winners trophy and midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger (left)
'At times I was trading day and night with sums that are hard for me to comprehend today, sometimes the amounts were extreme,' he said.
Such stock market speculation ended, he said, amid heavy losses in 2006 and the recession which followed in 2007.
Hoeness, worried about the heat being turned up on wealthy Germans like himself, went to the tax authorities on January 17 last year over an unspecified amount of unpaid taxes. It is understood he had been informed that the taxman was on his case.
On March 20, 2013, police raided his lakeside villa near Munich and presented him with an arrest warrant but released him on five million euros' bail.
Despite widespread criticism -- including from Chancellor Angela Merkel who voiced 'disappointment' - his initial offer to resign in May was rejected by the supervisory board of the club.
Charges were laid in July but not publicly released. Under German tax law, they remain secret until they are read out in court.
The trial is scheduled to last four days, with a verdict expected as early as Thursday. Speculation is that he might get up to a year in jail but this might be suspended.
Hoeness has said he will seek to convince the judge of his innocence.
'I am still of the opinion that my tax advisor's work was okay and the verdict must reflect that,' he said in a recent interview.
Early this year he told Bayern fans: 'I don't want to make myself into some sort of a saint, everyone knows that I made a big mistake. But I don't think that I have become a bad person.'
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