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Bayern Munich President Uli Hoeness was sentenced Thursday to 3.5 years behind bars by a German court for tax evasion.
"In the name of the people, Mr Ulrich Hoeness is sentenced for seven serious counts of tax evasion to a prison term of three years and six months," Judge Rupert Heindl told the Munich courtroom.
Hoeness admitted in court on Monday he had evaded taxes of 18.5 million euros ($26 million) using a secret Swiss bank account - more than five times the amount on a prosecutors' charge sheet. He had hoped by making this disclosure, a prison term would be greatly reduced. Indeed, he could have been sentenced up to ten years.
Hoeness told the court he used his secret account for more than 50,000 speculative trades in financial markets such as foreign exchange and derivatives from 2001 to 2010. He said he lost a million euros between 2003 and 2009.
"It was always clear to me that the account was mainly for gambling," he said. "It was a real kick, pure adrenaline. I lost track of it all. Everything was a real mess in the end."
- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com
