Cantonal courts also involved over Boris Becker's finances

It will have come as a shock to many of his fans that Boris Becker, who won the men’s singles competition at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon in 1985, 1986 and 1989, was being sued for bankruptcy at the High Court of Justice in London.
 
Speaking on behalf of his client, English solicitor John Brigg was adamant that all of Becker’s debts to the British private bank Arbuthnot Latham & Co would be able to be settled once a property the tennis professional owned in Majorca had been sold.
 
Not only are the courts in England involved, so are they in Zug. Becker has had connections with the canton since he moved his company to Baar in 2003, subsequently renting an apartment in the Hotel Waldheim in Risch in March 2005. However, it remained empty most of the time and in January 2014 it was confirmed by civic authorities that he had severed all domiciliary and business connections he had had with the canton of Zug.
 
But now it has come to light that Becker is being sued for failure to repay a CHF 40 million loan to a former local business associate, Hans-Dieter Cleven, with whom he set up the Becker-Cleven Foundation to promote “fit4future Sportcamps”.
 
In an initial ruling, dating back to 26 June this year, and as confirmed by Cleven’s lawyer, Oliver Habke of the GHM Partners AG firm of lawyers of Postrasse in the city, the Zug cantonal court rejected Cleven’s right to a pursue his funds through a civil case, as the deadline for repaying the CHF 40 million had not yet passed.
 
Now Habke has stated that his client is to appeal against this ruling by the cantonal court, as he feels it was unfounded. Hence the case is to be heard in the highest court in the canton, the supreme court.
 
When a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung pressed Habke on what he meant by “unfounded”, the lawyer said he was not able to elaborate because of tactical reasons in relation to how he will present the case. He did indicate, however, that the decision of his client to appeal had been made without any direct contact with Becker himself, who, until last Sunday, has been busy commentating for the BBC on this year’s tennis championships in Wimbledon.
 
The total sum of the loan in question amounts to CHF 41.74 million, but if lawyers’ and court costs could be saved, millionaire Cleven said he would be prepared to accept “just” CHF 10 million.
 
What is not known is what Becker thinks of Cleven’s action. No comment was forthcoming, either, from Becker’s media lawyer, Christian Oliver Moser. A spokesman for the former Becker-Cleven Foundation, now just the Cleven Foundation, also declined to comment.