After being sentenced to several years in prison, star chef Schuhbeck has his lawyers announce that they will appeal in order to be able to understand the written verdict. It sounds like a defensive announcement, but at least Schuhbeck gains time to take further steps.
Star chef Alfons Schuhbeck, who was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for tax evasion, is now appealing against the judgment of the Munich I Regional Court. By filing an appeal, Schuhbeck wanted to take the opportunity to understand the tax evasion he was accused of and the considerations regarding the sentencing on the basis of the written judgment, his lawyers said. On Wednesday it still looked as if Schuhbeck intended to forgo an audit.
In the current statement, the lawyers quoted the 73-year-old as saying: "Should the written reasons support the district court's decision, I will ask my lawyers to withdraw the appeal in case of doubt." Until then, he will not let up in his efforts to repair the damage as far as possible. In addition to the prison sentence, the district court ordered the collection of the unpaid income tax of a good 1.2 million euros.
Up to the day of his verdict, Schuhbeck had tried to remedy the tax damage he had caused. According to his defenders, talks with an investor failed at the last minute.
However, the Munich I Regional Court accused the cook, who is known nationwide from numerous television programs, that he had not taken any other steps apart from seeking outside help to pay off the tax burden. So Schuhbeck paid only 150 euros to the cash register until the verdict, according to the court he could have paid money from his income before that. A repayment of the tax liability should have been taken into account as a mitigating penalty.
According to last week's verdict, Schuhbeck had manipulated the cash registers in his two Munich restaurants for years and thus failed to post more than five million euros in sales.
