Boris Becker continues to work as a tennis broadcaster.
BANKRUPT Wimbledon legend Boris Becker may have lost a chunk of his $ 167 million fortune through poor investments in Nigerian oil.
A report by Germany’s Spiegel magazine, based on documents the publication says it was shown by whistleblowing website Football Leaks, claims the 49-year-old former tennis star had business ties with the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
At one point he considered a single investment of more than $ 10 million — although it was not clear if Becker went through with the deal.
It’s the latest revelation about the former playboy who was declared bankrupt in a British court last month despite amassing huge amounts of prizemoney during his reign at the top of the sport.
Tax problems, failed business ventures and divorce settlements have all been offered as the cause of the financial woes of a man who was dubbed “Bonking Boris” early in his career.
In the early 1990s, he appeared to settle down with model wife Barbara Feltus, and they made headlines by posing nude together for a magazine.
But it all came crashing down over revelations that he had fathered a love child with Russian model Angela Ermakova after they hooked up in the broom closet at a Japanese restaurant in London — while a pregnant Feltus was in the hospital.
“[The model] looked directly at me, the look of the hunter that said, ‘I want you,’ ” he admitted in his 2003 autobiography, “Stay A Moment Longer.”
“There she was again, walking twice past the bar. And again this look. A little while later she left her table for the toilet. I followed behind … Five minutes small talk and then straight away into the nearest possible place and down to business.”
Becker with then girlfriend Patrice Farameh at the Laureus Sports Awards in Monaco in 2002.Source:AP
A lengthy and bitter divorce battle with Feltus — broadcast live on German TV — wound up costing him $ 25 million, his luxury condo in Miami and custody of their two sons.
He was then forced to cough up another $ 1.2 million to buy his baby mamma a home of her own in London.
Becker’s property woes didn’t stop there.
After years of investigations, German authorities in 2002 busted him for almost $ 2 million in tax evasion, revealing that he had been living in his homeland during his years as a pro while claiming to live in Monaco.
Authorities tried to put Becker behind bars, but he got off with a hefty fine and a suspended sentence. He claimed the ordeal cost him his career.
“Because of this tax business, I have not been able to sleep easily since the first house search [in 1996],” he told the court at the time. “It is notable that I was unable to win a tournament thereafter.”
But the former playboy has also been beset by a series of failed business ventures — a sports website, an organic food business, and more notably, a planned 19-story high-rise in Dubai called the Boris Becker Business Tower, whose backers went bust in 2011.
In 2012, Becker fell behind on debts he owed to contractors for work on his luxury villa in Majorca, Spain, and a judge repossessed the property that he bought in the 1990s — a sprawling, 62-acre complex with a guesthouse, pool, tennis and basketball courts and an orange grove.
Becker at the 1996 Australian Open.Source:News Corp Australia
He was declared bankrupt by a British court last month after failing to pay a longstanding debt.
A lawyer for the six-time Grand Slam champion pleaded with a Bankruptcy Court registrar in London for a last chance to pay a debt that Becker has owed to private bankers Arbuthnot Latham & Co. since 2015.
“One has the impression of a man with his head in the sand,” said the registrar, who said she watched Becker play on Centre Court at Wimbledon.
Becker, who was born in Germany and lives in London, recently coached Novak Djokovic and has been a TV commentator.
His lawyer, John Briggs, had argued there was sufficient evidence to show that Becker would be able to pay the debt through a refinancing arrangement, involving remortgaging a property in Mallorca, which was expected to raise 6 million euros ($ 8.8 million).
Mr Briggs also said Becker was “not a sophisticated individual when it comes to finances,” and that bankruptcy was likely to have an adverse effect on Becker’s image.
German tennis champion Boris Becker declared bankrupt0:56
German tennis champion Boris Becker has been declared bankrupt after being in debt since 2015
— with New York Post, AP
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