2023-10-12 20:22:00
The former president of Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone, 92 years old, declared guilty of tax fraud in a London court. This Thursday, October 12, he admitted his responsibility and agreed to pay $800 million for his failure. He was accused of omitting to declare 400 million pounds to the treasury, equivalent to 490 million dollars, in assets located in Singapore during the period between 2013 and 2016. He even lied to the British Treasury when it questioned him regarding the issue in a meeting in 2015.
Ecclestone, who He was head of Formula Oneorganization that controlled Formula 1 until 2017, rHe received a 17-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Southwark court in London.
The prosecution maintained that Ecclestone claimed that he had opened “solely a trust” for the benefit of his three daughters, and that he was not “the account holder or beneficiary of any trust within or outside the United Kingdom.” He acted “dishonestly” and “now accepts that “He must pay taxes for this matter,” said prosecutor Richard Wright.
Although Ecclestone had pleaded not guilty earlier this year, the judge described the offense as serious but added that he took into account various factors, including the defendant’s age and health, when determining the sentence.
For her part, his lawyer Christine Montgomery told the judge that Ecclestone “deeply regrets the events that led to this criminal trial.”
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The British tycoon headed Formula One and controlled the sport from the early 70s until 2017when he resigned as CEO and the Liberty Media conglomerate acquired the championship.
According to the prosecutor, “Mr. Ecclestone did not know exactly how the ownership of these accounts was structured. Therefore, he did not know whether he had to pay taxes, interest or penalties in relation to transfers between accounts.” “Mr Ecclestone acknowledges that it was a mistake to answer the questions because it might cause HMRC to stop investigating his affairs. Now he accepts that he should have paid taxes on it“said the prosecutor.
The defendant was a racing driver in the late 1950s and later boss of the Brabham team. His fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at more than 2,500 million pounds (2,952 million dollars) and he is considered the architect of the transformation of F1, turning it into a lucrative activity, since, at the end of the 70s , was one of the pioneers in the commercialization of television broadcasting rights for sporting events.
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