The 74-year-old is now in prison. As a private individual, he has millions of dollars in debt. What role music producer Ralph Siegel plays in this.
The crowds are likely to be large in the district court rooms Munich. The celebrity chef’s creditors will meet there this Wednesday Alfons Schuhbeck, who has been in the Landsberg correctional facility for around three weeks for tax evasion. But once he started prison, the legal disputes for the 74-year-old were not over. This time it’s about Schuhbeck’s personal bankruptcy. All those to whom the private citizen Alfons Schuhbeck owes money come together in Munich.
Alfons Schuhbeck is said to have several million euros in debt to private individuals
His insolvency administrator Rolf Pohlmann no longer wanted to comment publicly shortly before the meeting. In July he told the Munich tabloid tz said that they had identified “almost 30 creditors” to whom Schuhbeck is in debt. One of them is the state: This Munich Regional Court In his ruling from October 2022, I ordered that Schuhbeck had to pay back a good 1.2 million to the tax authorities. And the former chef maintains his willingness to do so to this day.
Schuhbeck is serving his sentence of three years and two months in the Landsberg prison.
Photo: Thorsten Jordan
Towards the end of the trial last fall, it briefly looked as if he would succeed – with the help of an unknown benefactor who wanted to transfer Schuhbeck’s tax debts. His defense lawyers communicated live in court with the mysterious third party, it was like a crime story: The verdict was imminent when Schuhbeck’s lawyer Sascha König suddenly announced that the investor would make a transfer worth millions at any moment to balance Schuhbeck’s manipulated accounts. But the money didn’t come.
According to rumors, the tax authorities are not even the creditors with the largest claim. According to reports, Schuhbeck has accumulated several million in debts from private individuals in his environment over the years. How much money is involved in total will be determined after the meeting. It is questionable whether the sum will be made public; the court date is not public.
Ralph Siegel supports the TV chef Schuhbeck
In recent months, his Munich insolvency administrator has analyzed how much assets the former owner of several luxury restaurants still has. Now it is his job to determine in which order the creditors will be served. First it is usually the turn of so-called creditors entitled to separate: They can claim that certain items do not belong to the insolvency estate because they are their property. The administrator must then release these items. For the other insolvency creditors, the amount of their claims generally determines how they share in the available assets.
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A good friend of the chef is FC Bayern veteran Uli Hoeneß and the composer Ralph Siegel. In July, he wrote an open letter asking creditors not to assert their claims against Schuhbeck. “The idea that he would come home after completing his prison sentence and find empty rooms and closets there, and that his prizes, certificates and appraisals of all kinds would be auctioned or sold off is downright unbearable for me.” He knows “hardly anyone who has worked so hard in their life.”
Ralph Siegel appeals for leniency for Alfons Schuhbeck.
Photo: Sven Hoppe, dpa (archive image)
The former TV gourmet Schuhbeck described himself in court as a bad businessman. In her verdict, the presiding judge assumed that the 74-year-old had taken five million euros from the tills of his restaurants Orlando and Südtiroler Stuben over the years. “Quick, quick, quick, quick and gone,” that’s how it went with the cash from the cash register, Schuhbeck himself said in his confession.