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Going against the grain
BONN. Apr 5: Steffi Graf reluctan-I Iv paid 1.3 million marks (777.000 dollars) to charity _____ last month as part of a settlement with German prosecutors who dropped their tax evasion investigation of the tennis player, a news magazine said today, reports Reuter.
Der Spiegel magazine said Graf had agreed with a heavy heart'' to the bargain with prosecutors because she wanted to put the 'media circus" about her tax affairs behind her and concentrate on tennis.
Graf. 27. who recently lost her ranking as world number one women's tennis player to 16-year-old Martina Hingis after 94 weeks on top. was quoted by the magazine as saying that although it hurt to agree to the deal, it was worth it to avoid further litigation.
Prosecutors dropped their investigation last month after probing Grafs finances for nearly two years when she agreed to their offer to pay a sum to charity. The amount was not made public at the time.
German prosecutors often use the charity donation procedure. with the agreement of the accused, to end a case which they do not believe merits a lengthy legal process.
Grafs office previously refused to comment on the size of tlie payment. The player said she had agreed to pay the money although she stressed that she had done nothihg illegal.
The tax investigations.
which have been front-page news iu Germany, officially started in April 1995. The homes of Graf and her father Peter were searched the following month.
Grafs father was sentenced jsarly this year to three years
and nine months in jail for actual and attempted tax evasion amounting to 12 million marks on Steffi's income.
Former family tax adviser Joachim Eckardt received two and a half years for complicity.
But both Graf and Eckardt remain free because prosecutors and defence appealed against the sentence.
The investigations against Steffi and the case against her father were conducted sepa-
rately.
Steffi Graf, whose signature was on all the tax returns, has always denied any involvement in the affair, saying she had entrusted financial matters to her father and his advisers from an early age.
The seven-times Wimbledon champion, who has not played since the semifinals of a tournament in Tokyo on February 1 because of a knee injury, could make a return to the court at the end of April in the German Open.