80-year-old wanted to keep property safe from creditors

In spite of years of business experience, was he simply inexperienced or did an 80-year-old entrepreneur from Kreuzwertheim intentionally transfer assets to his wife in order to withdraw them from his creditors? Jrgen Weber, the criminal judge responsible for economic offenses at the Wrzburg District Court, had to deal with this question on Wednesday. After several hours of taking evidence, the verdict was unequivocal: The defendant was sentenced to 11,200 euros (280 daily rates of 40 euros) for premeditated bankruptcy and creditors’ pardon.

The defendant receives a pension of € 1235 every month. Otherwise he has had no assets for years, for which he primarily blames the finance offices from Lohr and the Main-Tauber district and “German law”. In his words, unjustified claims by the tax authorities of well over half a million euros are the main reason why his group of companies, which specializes in the manufacture and sale of measuring instruments, got into dire straits almost exactly ten years ago and had to file for bankruptcy .

Transfer the land, furniture and boat to the wife

The Wrzburg Regional Court then issued a judgment on payment to one of the creditors, but the foreclosure was unsuccessful. When, at the request of a bank, the Wrzburg District Court opened insolvency proceedings against him personally in 2016, the entrepreneur decided, according to the prosecution, to transfer two land charges registered for him on a company property in Thringen to his wife, who has since died, “without consideration and without legal grounds to withdraw assets from the creditors’ access “.

Public prosecutor Sebastian Sommer indicated in the course of the hearing that other property, including furniture from the common house and a boat from the property of the defendant, had also been transferred to that of his wife. “He also ran his wife’s business and did not even have his own account,” a criminal investigator reported on the witness stand. However, the prosecution focused on the land charges. As a result, the defendant withdrew around 70,000 euros from the bankruptcy estate according to the prosecutor’s calculations.

The brother is also being investigated

Similar allegations await the 80-year-old’s brother, against whom, according to Sommer, the investigation has not yet been concluded. The Wrzburg lawyer, who is in charge of handling the defendant’s bankruptcy, made no secret of what he thought of the two brothers in court: “They know exactly what is going on and how to get out of there.” The insolvency administrator also looked at the company property in Ilmenau and found that goods are still being produced there, although the property and company building are due for foreclosure at the end of October.

At the end of the taking of evidence, neither the prosecutor nor the judge had any doubts that the accused had intentionally removed the land charges. The judgment is not yet final.

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• Kreuzwertheim

• Patrick Wtzel

• District Court Wrzburg

• District courts

• accused

• Ownership and ownership

• Investigators

• Fines

• Land

• Bankruptcy proceedings

• Jrgen Weber

• Wrzburg District Court

• Prosecutors

• Criminal judges

• foreclosure

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