Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone pleads guilty to $A767m fraud

Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded guilty to fraud after failing to declare more than £400 million ($A767m) of overseas assets.

The ex-Formula One boss, 92, admitted a single charge of fraud at Southwark Crown Court today.

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He said “I plead guilty” while standing in the well of the court wearing a dark suit and grey tie.

Ecclestone failed to tell the UK Government about the trust he had in Singapore where the money was.

On July 7, 2015, the billionaire failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account then containing around about £400m.

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”.

Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told the court: “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.”

Before his guilty plea, he had been due to face trial in November on the single fraud charge.

The charge against him was authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service in July last year.

It stated Ecclestone 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”.

The tycoon, who has three grown-up daughters - Deborah, 68, Tamara, 38, and Petra, 34 - and a young son, Ace, was F1 chief for four decades from the 1970s.

He was removed from the position in January 2017.

Ecclestone is also one of the UK’s richest men and was last year ranked 65th in the The Sunday Times Rich List – with an estimated net worth of £2.5 billion ($A4.8b).

This story first appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission.