Mr. Schuhbeck, as the presiding judge reads on Thursday, is a "tough dog when it comes to production and service".

"But as an employee, we could always rely on our Alfons." The chairperson reads out the letter from one of Schuhbeck's employees so as not to, as she says, "make him look bad".

Karen Truscheit

Editor in the “Germany and the World” department.

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The clerk sits in the courtroom with the spectators, after the letter has been read out, she calls out: “May I say something else?” – “No, you can't.

It means watching and not talking,” the presiding judge replies to her.

The woman adheres to this, but instead stretches her arms in the air, thumbs up.

Alfons Schuhbeck, in a blue suit with a handkerchief, looks from the dock in her direction and smiles cautiously.

The chairwoman had previously reported that she had received many letters about Schuhbeck.

From people who call themselves "tax consultants", from people who "pronounce themselves for Mr. Schuhbeck".

Just like the employee who claps briefly when later one of Schuhbeck's lawyers calls for a suspended sentence and a fine in his plea.

In her letter, the employee had asked the court "for clemency", which probably also meant saving the 73-year-old star chef from prison.

However, the Munich Regional Court I did not agree to this on Thursday: It sentenced the chef and restaurateur to three years and two months in prison for tax evasion of around 2.3 million euros - without suspending the sentence on probation.

His co-accused, a computer specialist,

"I can not change it any more"

In his last word, shortly before the verdict, Schuhbeck once again admitted mistakes: "High court, I know that it was wrong, I can no longer change it." Schuhbeck had already canceled sales on the second day of the trial for his restaurant "Orlando ' confessed, later he also admitted to manipulations in the 'Südtiroler Stuben' - which the public prosecutor's office in their pleading, however, evaluated as a tactical admission, since his statements were only made after his co-defendant had heavily incriminated him.

Schuhbeck stated in court that he could no longer remember specific amounts and also pointed out that there were often "technical difficulties" in entering the invoices.

The public prosecutor had accused him of having manipulated accounts in his restaurants with the help of a computer program, among other things.

She assumes that more than 1000 missing invoice numbers.

Compensation for damage "from a third person"

On Thursday, before the verdict, it was still in the room that Schuhbeck would make compensation for the damage at the last minute by paying the 2.3 million euro tax liability "by a third person".

His lawyer had reported on "intensive negotiations" that had been going on for a long time, from an "investor living in Germany" who had promised to transfer the money by Thursday morning.

But arrived by Thursday afternoon: nothing.

"We hoped until the end.

And a trustee account was set up by 2 a.m. last night, to which the money should be transferred.

In their pleadings, the lawyers painted a picture of a hard-working, restless man blessed with great talent (“a gifted chef, I don't know anyone who can speak impromptu about spices like him”), but with all his I took over business from a commercial point of view ("you come out of the airport and land at 'Alfons Schuhbeck', you fall over spices from him every five meters in the supermarket").

Of course, with tax evasion of more than one million, it means: "Jail, period, end, over." But the million limit "is not an absolute limit".

"The BGH never said that, never meant it!" After all, the sentencing is "not static, not mathematical".

Rather, the lawyers wanted to see mitigating reasons taken into account, because after all, Schuhbeck is not a "millionaire who can't get enough of it".

The motive situation must therefore be placed in the foreground.

"Why did he commit the crimes?" To keep jobs, to "fill the gaps in the businesses," to give his children a better life.

After all, Schuhbeck, who “works 16 hours a day”, had to “sleep in the car” at the beginning of his career, when he was not yet a successful businessman.

"He wanted to spare his children that."

The prosecutor had previously also listed things that should be rated at Schuhbeck's expense: his criminal energy.

Accordingly, he used a tool specially developed by the accused IT specialist to manipulate the computer systems for billing and to delete sales.

She also cited the long period of manipulated accounts: from 2009 to 2016. "Invoice numbers were deleted, cash was withdrawn and new receipts were printed out." And last but not least: the large amount of operating income that never appeared in sales.

The public prosecutor's office had deemed a prison sentence of four years and two months to be appropriate.