Published:
Bernie Ecclestone was already sued by the British tax authorities in 2015 for a payment related to a family trust valued at almost 1,200 million dollars .
The UK tax authorities announced this Monday that the former president of Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone has been charged with misrepresentation fraud after failing to declare 400 million pounds ($476 million) worth of foreign assets, reports Reuters.
According to Simon York, Director of the Fraud Investigation Service at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs Administration (HMRC), the charges are the result of “a complex and global criminal investigation” into the financial irregularities of the 91-year-old businessman.
For his part, the British tycoon stated that he did not know the details of the accusation, so I couldn’t comment. However, he clarified that the situation was not something new for him. Ecclestone was sued by HMRC in 2015 over a £1 billion ($1.19 billion) payment related to a family trust.
In 2017, Bernie Ecclestone was dismissed as president of Formula 1 after having been at the helm of the sports organization for 40 years. He was replaced by the American Chase Carey.
On June 30, the billionaire defended the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, whom he defined as a “first-class person” for the one who “would take a bullet”. Likewise, he stated that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky could have ended the conflict with Moscow if he had maintained dialogue with his Russian counterpart. However, on Saturday she apologized for his comments: “I’m sorry if […] anything I’ve said has upset anyone, because it certainly wasn’t intentional.”