No mercy for star chef: Alfons Schuhbeck (73) has to spend three years behind bars

German star chef Alfons Schuhbeck has been sent to prison. The Munich I regional court sentenced the 73-year-old on Thursday to three years and two months in prison without probation for tax evasion.

The co-defendant was given a year’s probation for complicity. The court stayed with Schuhbeck at the request of prosecutors, who had asked for four years and two months. Schuhbeck’s lawyers had argued for a suspended sentence. The prosecutor had also demanded a suspended sentence for the co-defendant.

The prosecutor had accused Schuhbeck of using a computer program to smuggle income past the tax authorities. In total, there is more than 2.3 million euros in taxes that Schuhbeck would have evaded between 2009 and 2015 in the “Orlando” and the “Südtiroler Stuben”.

“I know what I did was wrong,” Schuhbeck said in his last word in court. He can’t change that anymore, but can try to repair the damage and take responsibility for his actions. Earlier, Schuhbeck employees had also sent a letter to the court, which had also read it.

The restaurateur had largely admitted the allegations, but stated that he could not remember specific events and amounts. He asked the court to believe him “that the amount of the canceled invoices in the ‘Südtiroler Stuben’ was not as high as I have been accused so far”. The authorities assume that more than 1,000 invoice numbers have disappeared. However, Schuhbeck had also reported technical problems when entering the invoices.

He had “urgently” asked the court to “critically review the amount of the canceled invoices”, but at the same time admitted: “Unfortunately, I can no longer provide any further documents for this.” (sda/dpa)