Ex-Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone pleaded guilty on Thursday to tax fraud, as he faces charges of failing to declare more than 400 million pounds (473 million euros) of assets held in Singapore, between 2013 and 2016.
Aged 92, Bernie Ecclestone initially pleaded not guilty in August 2022, but finally admitted the charges against him during a hearing on Thursday in London. He will thus be sentenced at a later date, without having to face the trial which was to open on November 16 and last up to six weeks.
“I plead guilty,” the British billionaire told Southwark Crown Court in London, dressed in a dark suit and gray tie. He is accused of failing to declare a trust in Singapore with an account with $650 million, or around £400 million at the time. The British prosecution had authorized his indictment following a tax investigation presented as “complex and international”.
Ecclestone reigned supreme over F1 for almost 40 years, until January 2017. He then left his post as leader of the world’s motorsport elite after being fired by the new holder of the discipline’s commercial rights. , the American group Liberty Media. A short-lived racing driver in the late 1950s then boss of the Brabham team, the British businessman, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at more than 2.5 billion pounds, is widely considered as the architect of the transformation of F1, which became a lucrative activity under his rule. In particular, at the end of the 1970s, he was one of the pioneers in the marketing of television broadcasting rights for sporting events.
