Enlarge image
Alfons Schuhbeck: »There is no third party responsible for this«
Photo:
CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP
Star chef Alfons Schuhbeck has extended his confession to tax evasion on Wednesday.
Two days ago Schuhbeck had said that he couldn't explain how money could have disappeared from his restaurant "Südtiroler Stuben", after all he couldn't even work the cash register there.
On Friday he remembered: Missing invoice numbers in the cash register system were “also due to computer manipulations, for which I am ultimately responsible,” said the 73-year-old restaurateur on Friday before the Munich I Regional Court. “There is no third party here who is responsible for this.«
On Wednesday, Schuhbeck made a wide-ranging confession, but mainly related to his other restaurant, Orlando.
At the time, he only assumed general responsibility for the "Südtiroler Stuben" and stated that he could not remember how the manipulations actually happened.
Schuhbeck faces imprisonment without parole
It was not on purpose that he did not admit everything on Wednesday, he said, "but due to my great stress and my fears." The 73-year-old added: "I am aware that I am threatened with imprisonment.
This idea scares me, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm willing to take responsibility for my mistakes.«
The public prosecutor accuses the 73-year-old of using a computer program to evade more than 2.3 million euros in taxes between 2009 and 2016.
According to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe in 2012, there is usually a risk of imprisonment without parole from a sum of one million euros.
He couldn't explain where all the money went, said Schuhbeck on Wednesday.
He "above all plugged financial gaps and supported my children in their education."
He wanted to enable them to study, which he was unable to complete himself.
He didn't squander the money or bury it in foreign accounts, he said.
has/dpa