The former drugstore owner Anton Schlecker doesn’t have to go to jail. The District Court of Stuttgart sentenced 73-year-old to a two-year suspended sentence and a fine of 54,000 euros due to intentional bankruptcy. Schlecker’s children Lars and Meike were sentenced to two years and eight months or two years and nine months in prison, among or things due to insolvency, infidelity and aid to bankruptcy.
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The defenders of Anton Schlecker announced that y would analyse judgment against ir client and n decide on a possible revision request. It was a very complex process, in which none of participants had done easily, said Schlecker’s lawyer Norbert Sharp. ” In one point, re is of course a dissent, which runs through entire main trial, “he added. “This is question of when impending insolvency of a billion-dollar group existed and when it was noticeable.”
“I’m going to get this yet”
The public Prosecutor’s Office had requested three years of detention for Anton Schlecker. She considered it proven that, as owner of drugstore chain of same name, he had BEISEITEGESCHAFFT million in months before bankruptcy in favor of his family – money that creditors lacked in end. In mid-November, ex-company boss and his children once again paid four million euros to insolvency administrator. The money is to flow into insolvency estate – to compensate for damage. Previously, family had already transferred ten million euros to administrator. All in all, creditors reported more than one billion euros in receivables earlier in report.
The once largest German drugstore chain had declared bankruptcy in January 2012 after years of loss. In process, crux of matter was when Schlecker saw impending bankruptcy coming. From that point on, he would not have been able to withdraw any money from company. The founder himself always emphasized that insolvency was inconceivable for him – he always believed in his life’s work. “At that time a world broke up for him”, an insider once revealed about day of bankruptcy in year 2012. He was firmly convinced that “I can still do it.”
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But Schlecker did not get it, 25,000 employees lost ir jobs. According to Public Prosecutor’s Office, company has suffered a total loss of 16 million euros, mainly because parent company is supposed to have paid excessive hourly rates to logistics subsidiary company LDG – company belongs to two schlecker children.
From butcher to head of group
The bankruptcy of his company meant ruin for Schlecker, as a registered merchant he was liable with his private wealth. Unusual for a group that temporarily generated more than five billion euros in revenue – advantageous for a patriarch like Schlecker who reigned in his empire without regard for managers and advisers.
In 1975, butcher master from Ulm opened first Schlecker market – one year after price fixing for drugstore items had been dropped. Two years later he already operated 100 drugstores, after nine years opened thousandth branch. Schlecker grew and grew, and group employed more than 55,000 people in his weddings. The staff rarely met boss personally, even later general manager Christel Hoffmann did not. But everyone saw him: in backrooms of shops re was always a photo of Anton and his wife Christa. He repeatedly paid off visits to stores – as a test buyer, incognito.
Furr processes in Linz and Zwickau
In end, Schlecker stood in front of half-empty shelves. The procurement of goods had become a problem, business ran worse, company went out of money. In end, founder’s zeal for expansion became disastrous. “Out of sheer growth, problems have been addressed many years too late,” said insolvency administrator Geiwitz. Already from 2008 drugstore chain made only losses, which company patriarch did not want to admit. He continued to make expensive gifts for his family. An apartment renovation here, a Caribbean vacation re, 200,000 euros for every grandson.
Meanwhile, Schlecker has no more assets. The fact that he still resides in family villa owes him to separation of goods and fortunes of his wife, who had been overwritten by Schlecker in particular. A fragmented life behind high walls, as couple had preferred for all se decades, will not exist even after verdict. Experts expect a lengthy insolvency procedure. In Zwickau and in Austrian Linz, two civil lawsuits against family begin in mid-December. The total amount of receivables is 21.4 million euros.
