Spanish government confirms it’s chasing Stephen Roche’s assets from Hungarian shell company

Spanish bankruptcy officials are going after former pro cyclist Stephen Roche’s personal assets, following the news that he had been found guilty of fraud in a court in Mallorca.

Roche is one of only two cyclists to ever win cycling’s triple crown, having won the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the road worlds in 1987. The only other cyclist to have ever achieved this feat was the great Eddy Merckx. According to a report on Friday in the Irish Times, Roche was ordered to repay $1.1 million after a Spanish court proved that he negligently bankrupted his Majorca firm, using its assets to pay for his own extravagant lifestyle.

The Spanish civil court ruling found that Roche used funds from his cycling tour company to pay for his own bills, instead of  paying creditors. Because of that, he was also banned from working as a company director in Spain for seven years. That’s not all–there could also be further criminal prosecution.

According to a new report from MSN, after leaving Mallorca, Roche created a new Hungarian firm called Shamrock 1987. The 1987 is of course, named after the year he won the cycling triple crown. According to the MSN report, Shamrock 1987 was founded in Hungary in May of 2018 after debts at Roche’s firm in Spain had skyrocketed by 250 percent to well over $400,000 the year before.

Throwback to the ‘Jeans Team,’ the Italian Carrera squad

Roche denied any wrongdoing with his Mallorcan company has said he will repay whatever he can. But according to the Spanish courts, Roche was well aware about the doomed state of his Mallorca firm but continued to take money from the company’s accounts for private use.

Judge Margarita Isabel Poveda Bernal criticized Roche for using company money to pay for his luxurious lifestyle.

“Mr. Roche’s sumptuous expenditure on things like golf, apartment rentals, hotels in Switzerland and Hungary, restaurants, clothes stores and fashion houses like LOEWE, evidence a life of luxury and spending while his creditors weren’t paid.”

Roche refuted this accusation that he was living a lavish lifestyle, citing his sartorial choices. “The fact that I wear a Boss suit, what does that change?’ he asked. “There’s guys in the street wearing Boss suits. It’s no longer designer clothing. You can get T-shirts for 50 euros now in Boss, you know. And suits are like 300 euros top and bottom.”