Despite rumors that he has complained about a German celebrity who has criticized his early release, tennis star Boris Becker has said that jail has strengthened him as a person.
The 55-year-old rang in the new year on a quiet beach on the island of So Tomé and Prncipe, off the coast of west Africa, the birthplace of his lover Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro.
Following his release from jail, he traveled to the opulent location a week later, according to The Times.
Becker said in a video on Instagram that this year had been the worst of her life.
“But it’s over; it’s over.” I survived, and I believe I was stronger for it. I believe that I have greater mental health than before.
At Southwark Crown Court in April of last year, Becker was found guilty of bankruptcy offenses after attempting to conceal assets worth more than £2.5 million in order to avoid paying debts.
He was given a 30-month jail term, although he has only spent eight of them, first at Wandsworth and then at HMP Huntercombe near Henley.
In accordance with the conditions of his release, Becker is not permitted to return to the UK for a number of years, and he has suggested moving to Miami or Dubai.
A public argument with social media personality and friend of Becker’s split wife Lilly, Cathy Hummels, 34, tarnished his homecoming to Germany.
In her Shitstorms podcast, Hummels claimed that Becker should have completed the whole of his sentence. She said, “This is a crime, what he did, therefore it’s reasonable that he needs to do [the term].”
He deceived people and destroyed them. You must complete your sentence. Definitely serious. He has tricked, misled, and defrauded a lot of people. That is just incorrect. Like everyone else, you must serve a jail sentence.
To be absolutely honest, I detest it when people treat you like a child just because you are well-known or famous.
Becker did not publicly comment to the tweets, but according to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, he requested that German authorities look into Hummels for criminal defamation after she published the remarks.
In June 2017, Becker was declared bankrupt with debts to creditors totaling about £50 million, including a loan of more than £3 million on his Mallorca home.
The BBC commentator moved over £390,000 from his company account to other people’s accounts, including his ex-wife Barbara Becker’s and his estranged wife Sharlely “Lilly” Becker’s.
In addition, he omitted a bank loan of about £700,000, which would have cost £1.1 million with interest, and 75,000 shares in a computer company, worth £66,000. He also neglected to disclose his ownership stake in a $1 million house in his hometown of Leimen, Germany.
On April 8, Becker was found guilty of four Insolvency Act violations between June and October 2017 and received a two-year suspended sentence. In 2002, Becker received a similar term in Germany for attempted tax fraud and evasion of taxes totaling £1.4 million.
»Boris Becker sends new year’s message saying jail made him ‘stronger’«