The former head of Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone, has pled guilty to tax fraud with U.K. authorities. The 92-year-old motorsports personality will now have to pay £652.6 million ($791.8 million USD at current exchange rates) in taxes, interest, and penalties, but avoids jail time.
The decision comes as part of a civil settlement with His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which said it was misled about overseas assets worth more than £400 million ($485 million USD) by Ecclestone. The tax authority says it was misled about these assets between 1994 and 2022.
Ecclestone pled guilty to a single count of tax fraud by false representation a little over a month before he was set to stand trial, Reuters reports. Although he tried to avoid the trial by getting a letter from his cardiologist saying the stress of a court case meant that he was “more likely to die than not during the trial,” Judge Simon Bryan ruled that it posed no immediate danger to Ecclestone’s life.
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The case dates back to 2015, when at a meeting with HMRC, the former F1 CEO said that he had established just one trust for his daughters, and that he was not a beneficiary or settler of any other trusts.
However, the HMRC found that he was the settler and beneficiary of a variety of them, including one trust that held a company that sent £416 million ($505 million USD) to a bank account in Singapore in 2010.
Ecclestone’s lawyer told the court that he “did not know the true position” of the trusts, and claimed that his answer to the HMRC was an “impulsive lapse of judgment.” The tax authority maintains that he lied.
“This conviction demonstrates no-one is above the law and HMRC will work tirelessly to ensure the tax system is fair to all and pays for our vital public services,” said Richard Las, chief investigation officer and director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC.
Although Ecclestone must pay hundreds of millions of dollars as part of the settlement, he avoids having to spend time locked up as a result of it. Although he was sentenced to a 17-month prison sentence, it was suspended for two years. As a result, he won’t go to jail unless he commits another criminal offense.
