Entrepreneur Sentenced to 3 Years 8 Months for Wage Theft
A 51-year-old entrepreneur from Halle (Saale), holding Serbian and Bosnian citizenship, has been sentenced to three years and eight months imprisonment. The verdict, final as of April 30, 2025, follows a confession during the trial for committing 33 offenses of withholding and misappropriating wages.
The entrepreneur, who was not the business owner but fully authorized to run the company's affairs, employed workers and paid their wages under the table, totaling approximately 1.12 million euros in gross wages. This illegal practice, spanning from March 2017 to January 2020, also resulted in around 405,000 euros to USD in social security contributions being withheld.
To evade the legal proceedings, the entrepreneur fled abroad. He was later arrested in Montenegro and extradited. Despite the search, the name of the head of the Hauptzollstelle Magdeburg related to this dispute remains unknown.
The entrepreneur's actions have been deemed serious enough to warrant a significant prison sentence. The final verdict serves as a reminder of the consequences of such illegal employment practices and wage suppression.
