Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was sentenced Thursday to 17 months in prison for tax evasion in London, for failing to declare several hundred million euros of assets held in Singapore.
Ecclestone, 92, initially pleaded not guilty in August 2022, but he finally admitted the charges against him during a hearing on Thursday at Southwark Crown Court in London, a month before the start of his scheduled trial for last up to six weeks.
He also agreed to pay more than 652 million pounds (nearly 755 million euros) to settle his dispute with the British tax authorities. “I plead guilty,” said the British billionaire, dressed in a dark suit and gray tie.
Justice accuses him of not having declared a trust in Singapore in 2015 with an account containing 650 million dollars, or around 400 million pounds sterling at the time (473 million euros). According to prosecutor Richard Wright, Bernie Ecclestone had given a “false or misleading” answer by claiming that he had no undeclared trusts, either in the UK or abroad. “He now recognizes that taxes must be paid,” he added.
Bernie Ecclestone’s lawyer, Christine Montgomery, told the court on Thursday that her client “bitterly regrets the facts which led to this criminal trial.”
This is not the first time that Bernie Ecclestone has been in trouble with the law. In 2014, he obtained an interruption of his corruption trial in Germany, paying $100 million.
Bernie Ecclestone was prosecuted for having paid 44 million dollars (31.8 million euros) in 2006 and 2007 to German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, who worked for the Bavarian public bank Bayern LB, with a view to concluding the sale of the rights to F1 to the investment fund CVC Capital Partners.
