Alfons Schuhbeck: New charges against imprisoned television chef

The Munich I public prosecutor’s office has brought further charges against the television chef Alfons Schuhbeck, who is already in prison. The 75-year-old is accused of delaying bankruptcy, fraud and subsidy fraud in numerous cases, as the investigative authority announced on Wednesday in the Bavarian capital. Schuhbeck has already been sentenced to three years and two months for tax evasion.

New charges against Alfons Schuhbeck

The new allegations relate, among other things, to the corona pandemic, in which Schuhbeck is said to have received unjustified state aid amounting to around 460,000 euros. The prominent chef, who ran a large number of businesses in a group of companies, is said to have failed to file for insolvency or filed for bankruptcy late for nine of his companies, even though the respective business was already insolvent.

The indictment accuses Schuhbeck of having caused massive damage to numerous business partners and creditors due to the insolvency of his companies, which had existed since 2017 and thus well before the corona pandemic. These provided services for which Schuhbeck’s companies did not pay. As a result, at least one company had to file for insolvency itself.

In addition, numerous former creditors of Schuhbeck are now confronted with significant claims from its insolvency administrator. This applies to cases in which they received payments from Schuhbeck at times when its companies were already insolvent.

Furthermore, Schuhbeck is said to have failed to pay social security contributions or paid them late on a large scale. In 212 cases he is said to have not paid 260,000 euros in contributions to statutory health insurance companies and in 267 cases he did not pay around 700,000 euros on time.