Building contractor gambles away nearly 1 million Euro

Ralf K. was not only a successful building contractor. In his free time, he was also a passionate football trainer. In mid-March however he had to appear in a Berlin court as he was accused of fraud and falsification of documents. His gambling addiction had led to the criminal acts.

On the 16th.March 2023 the former building contractor, Ralf K. appeared in the local court, namely the Amtsgericht Tiergarten and had to answer for various acts from the past. The man from Brandenburg had falsified bills and scammed funds amounting to six-digit figures. He used the money mostly to finance his addiction to sports bets and casino games. Since he admitted fully to the charges he did not have to go to prison.

As a commuter addicted to sports betting and blackjack

The discreet family man had built a house in the surroundings of Berlin. He had to commute two hours daily to his place of work and back. For a long time, he had used this time to place sports bets on the internet. After some time, he also played blackjack in the online casino. According to his own statement he lost the total amount of around 840,000 Euro. Ralf K. described to the judge of the Amtsgericht Tiergarten how it happened:

“I started with small sports bets. Later on, I also played blackjack in the online casino.”

Falsified bills and scammed 550,000

Since his own financial means were depleted, Ralf K. started falsifying bills at his place of work, he falsified 26 bills about fictious works which had been done. The father of two scammed more than 550,000 from his firm in this way. It was only when his bank suspected him of laundering money and reported the case that the fraud was revealed. In mid-March we had reported about the death of a Twitch streamer and his sports betting addiction was most probably the cause.

Accused shows remorse and wants to recover losses

During the trial the addicted building contractor’s lawyer, Ehssan Khazaeli, stated that his client showed remorse for his actions and wanted to recover the losses incurred. To succeed in doing this, Ralf K. is now setting away 1000 Euro per month for this cause.

The court rewarded the accused’s admission with a relatively mild penalty. Ralf K. was then sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of one year and 11 months for professional fraud of 26 cases. In summer 2021 we had reported that a gambling addict had gambled away more than 150,000 Euro in an online casino.

Conclusion

A family man and house owner from Brandenburg has defrauded his employer in several cases and scammed several hundred thousand Euro. He used the money to finance his addiction for sports betting and casino games. He has now received a suspended sentence by the district court, Amtsgericht Tiergarten for his actions.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/architekt-gebäude-freude-planung-1080589/