"Clear prison sentence": In the Schuhbeck judgment, the judge settled the system and behavior of the star chef
Created: 10/28/2022 10:18 am
By: Andreas Thieme
More than three years in prison: star chef Alfons Schuhbeck has been found guilty of tax evasion.
The judge shows no mercy.
Munich – He gets up and buttons his dark blue jacket.
Alfons Schuhbeck (73) looks sadly to the ground – this is how he accepts his verdict at 3 p.m. at the Palace of Justice: guilty – as charged.
Judge Andrea Wagner has no doubts that the star chef evaded 2.3 million euros in taxes.
She sends Schuhbeck behind bars: he has to go to prison for three years and two months – a harsh sentence.
Schuhbeck trial: judge attests him “high criminal energy”
The judge complained that it was tax evasion “over a very long period of time and to a considerable extent”.
She confidently led the trial and completed the case in just four days.
Schuhbeck attests her "high criminal energy".
He himself had confessed and said he was standing in front of the ruins of his life.
"You brought it on yourself," the judge snapped at him.
Schuhbeck's lawyers had demanded a suspended sentence, and the public prosecutor's office had even asked for four and a half years in prison.
In the end, the judge showed no mercy with the star chef: "It's a clear prison sentence," said Wagner.
Probation was "not an option", "not even remotely."
"I'll always be there for Alfons": Monika Gruber reacts furiously after Schuhbeck's verdict - but stands by him.
Large-scale tax evasion: Schuhbeck is found guilty
In the verdict, she explained why.
In his former Orlando restaurant, Schuhbeck had IT consultant Jürgen W. (65) write a program that the chef could use to subsequently falsify sales.
He led up to 2000 euros a day past the tax office.
Technically, however, this was easy for the investigators to understand, as there had already been a raid on the Platzl in 2019.
In the process, Jürgen W. hanged his ex-boss, and only then did Schuhbeck admit to the manipulations on the computer.
For the South Tyrolean Stuben, where more than 1,700 invoices were missing from the balance sheets, he later added: "I take full responsibility." But both confessions had "flaws", the judge reprimanded - the public prosecutor even rated them as "tactical".
Because Schuhbeck was already standing with his back to the wall,
Yesterday, when his lawyers were still haggling over the last figures that could exonerate the star chef, he put a stop to it after the lunch break: he alone was responsible for everything.
At that moment it is clear: the top dog is dumped.
Later, in his last word, Schuhbeck says, looking back on the past few years: "I know what I did was wrong." He can now only try to "repair the damage."
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But even that failed!
According to the court, Schuhbeck has only repaid 150 euros of his tax debts and provides crude explanations for this.
A multimillionaire investor would have come forward and wanted to "pay all debts".
"But he jumped off at short notice," said his lawyers.
None of the 50 promised payment commitments were kept.
The judge just frowned – and handed it out vigorously.
Schuhbeck has "concealed" his finances for years.
He had presented himself in court as a passionate cook, but he had failed as a businessman.
The judge also dismantled this statement: Reaching into one's own till was "not a commercial error", but "a criminal offence".
The reasoning for the verdict lasts 30 minutes, and then Schuhbeck is allowed to leave.
First home, to the Platzl.
His lawyers now want to review the verdict and "discuss in the coming days whether an appeal should be filed." It depends on whether Schuhbeck has to go straight to prison.