Thursday, October 12, 2023 – Ex-Formula One boss, Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded guilty to fraud for failing to declare more than £400million held in a Singapore trust to the Government after agreeing to pay the taxman more than £652million.
Judge Simon Bryan gave Ecclestone a 17-month sentence suspended for two years, meaning he would only go to jail if he committed another criminal offence during that time.
The former racing chief, 92, this morning said ‘I plead guilty’ while standing in the well of the court wearing a dark three-piece suit and grey tie
On July 7 2015, the billionaire failed to declare the trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around $650million, worth about £400million at the time.
Southwark Crown Court heard the former racing driver has agreed a civil settlement of £652,634,836 in respect of sums due to HMRC.
The charge stated Ecclestone, who has three grown-up daughters, Deborah, Tamara and Petra, and a young son, Ace, had ‘established only a single trust, that being one in favour of your daughters and other than the trust established for your daughters you were not the settlor nor beneficiary of any trust in or outside the UK’.
Before his guilty plea, he had been due to face trial in November on the single fraud charge.
His defence barrister, Christine Montgomery KC, told sentencing judge Mr. Justice Bryan that the defendant ‘bitterly regrets the events that led to this criminal trial’.
Ecclestone had previously been cleared of bribery charges in August 2014 after he paid a German criminal court £60million.
Ecclestone was alleged to have bribed a German banker to steer the sale of regional bank BayernLB’s 47.2 percent stake in F1 to a private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, in 2006. CVC were the majority shareholders in F1 at the time.
He was accused of paying the financier a £27million bribe.
After deliberating for three hours on the offer made by the defence and agreed by the prosecution, the presiding judge, Peter Noll, declared: ‘The charges could not, in important areas, be substantiated.’
As a result of that investigation, HMRC opened a tax fraud investigation into Ecclestone.
Mr Wright told the court that a meeting was held between Ecclestone and HMRC officers in July 2015.
He said that Ecclestone was ‘seeking to a draw a line under investigations into his tax affairs.’
Mr Wright added: ‘He was fed up of paying huge bills for advice.’
The court heard Ecclestone had said ‘no’ when asked by HMRC officers whether he had any links to further trusts ‘in or outside the UK’.
Prosecutor Richard Wright, KC said: ‘That answer was untrue or misleading. Mr Ecclestone knew his answer may have been untrue or misleading.
‘As of July 7, 2015, Mr Ecclestone did not know the truth of the position, so was not able to give an answer to the question.
‘Mr Ecclestone was not entirely clear on how ownership of the accounts in question were structured.
‘He therefore did not know whether it was liable for tax, interest or penalties in relation to amounts passing through the accounts.
‘Mr Ecclestone recognises it was wrong to answer the questions he did because it ran the risk that HMRC would not continue to investigate his affairs.
‘He now accepts that some tax is due in relation to these matters.’
The charge alleged that Ecclestone ‘dishonestly’ made a representation to officers of HMRC ‘which was, and which you knew was or might have been, untrue or misleading’.
The charge against him was authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in July last year following an investigation by HMRC, which said the probe had been ‘complex and worldwide’.
Chief Crown Prosecutor Andrew Penhale said at the time: ‘The CPS has reviewed a file of evidence from HMRC and has authorised a charge against Bernard Ecclestone of fraud by false representation in respect of his failure to declare to HMRC the existence of assets held overseas believed to be worth in excess of £400million.’
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