Bayern Munich President, Uli Hoeness, stunned a German court on Monday by admitting he had evaded taxes of 18.5 million euros ($26 million) using a secret Swiss bank account.
The amount is more than five times the amount on a prosecutors’ charge sheet.
Court spokesperson, Andrea Titz, told journalists that the defendant planned to wipe the slate clean and completely return to tax compliance.
Hoeness confessed that he also tried to make that clear by submitting a large number of documents to the court in the last few days.
According to him, this was the complete documentation of his speculative trading. The defendant said that the documents proved higher financial gains than previously assumed by the prosecution.
Once one of Germany’s most admired managers, Hoeness apologised and appealed for leniency at the start of a trial in a case that shocked Germany and prompted other tax dodgers to turn themselves in.
State prosecutor, Achim Von Engel, read the charge sheet in which he was accused of evading 3.5 million euros in taxes – on undeclared income of 33.5 million euros between 2003 and 2009.
Hoeness, who turned Bayern Munich into a sports and commercial success before his fall from grace, could be sentenced to between five and 10 years in jail if convicted of evading more than 1 million euros in taxes.
“I’m glad that this is all out in the open now,” 62-year-old Hoeness, who was wearing a dark suit and smiling nervously, told the court. “I deeply regret my wrongdoing. I’m doing everything I can to put this unhappy chapter behind me.”
Hoeness, who as a player won the World Cup with West Germany in 1974 and as manager led Bayern Munich to two European Champions League and many domestic league titles, is hoping the voluntary disclosure will help him avoid jail.
He paid 10 million euros to the tax office in January 2013, and says he voluntarily alerted tax authorities then about his Swiss bank account and undeclared income. What is unclear is whether he informed the tax office about his offence early enough or comprehensively enough to avoid jail.
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.
Hoeness said he was disappointed that the state prosecutors raided his house and arrested him before charging him with tax evasion after his voluntary disclosure in 2013. He said he had received death threats when the public learned of his case.
The case against Hoeness, and other celebrities caught or confessing to tax evasion, led thousands to pre-emptively pay back taxes in the hope of avoiding prosecution and helped change the public’s perception of tax evasion as a misdemeanour to it being seen as a serious crime.