The party nights in the legendary Kytaro, the former In-Greek of Munich, are long over. The restaurant no longer exists. And for Leonidas A., the former managing director of Kytaro, things got even worse. Tax investigators from the Munich tax office were on his heels. A. was investigated for six years. On Monday, the Munich I Regional Court sentenced the 63-year-old to a prison sentence of three years. The judges of the 6th Criminal Chamber are convinced that A. has bypassed the tax authorities in taxes amounting to 1.65 million euros. The tax damage is significant, said the presiding judge, Andrea Wagner. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
In 2018, Leonidas A. was searched. In addition to documents, the tax investigators seized a complete cash register system and a number of USB sticks. The latter were in a brown box from Gucci. The investigators had to sift through a mountain of data. They noticed that the restaurant had purchased far more goods than recorded in the accounting – including black coffee. The relevant invoices are said to have subsequently been “changed” on the defendant’s instructions. In addition, there must have been “manipulation software” in the Kytaro cash register that left no trace, Judge Wagner stated when justifying the verdict. Drinks and food were said to have been canceled afterwards, even though they had been sold the day before.
Prosecutor Klaus Liebl calculated that Leonidas A. and his two defense attorneys Lars Kopp and Maximilian Krämer did not report a third of his annual sales to the tax authorities. The prosecutor was convinced that the majority of the tax evasion was due to “illicit purchases” for Kytaro. There are a total of 15 cases of tax evasion, says Liebl. He demanded four and a half years in prison.
The defenders of the former Kytaro managing director, however, demanded an acquittal for their client. There is no solid evidence to support the prosecution’s accusation. Neither in Germany nor abroad have any “assets” been found that were acquired with the allegedly evaded taxes, said lawyer Lars Kopp. “The treasure of Monte Cristo,” which the tax investigators suspected somewhere, “does not exist,” he said in his plea, referring to the modest lifestyle of Leonidas A., who drives a car built in 2008. Lawyer Maximilian Krämer accused the tax investigators of having fabricated their allegations – based on Pippi Longstocking’s motto: “I make the world the way I like it,” said the defense attorney. All of the defendant’s private expenses were covered by his income.
Judge Wagner found that the penalties to be imposed in the event of damage such as in the present case are clear based on the case law of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. It’s about punishments in the “area that can no longer be paroled.” The fact that the entire process dragged on for six years is understandable given the amount of data that the investigators had to sift through. There was no procedural length of time that violated the rule of law.
Leonidas A. is faced with the pieces of his life. According to his lawyers, he has applied for citizen’s benefit.