Former Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud in a London court, according to reports.
The 92-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. He admitted failing to declare that he held more than £400 million in a trust in Singapore.The case was brought by the Crown Prosecution Service in July last year following what it called a “complex and worldwide” probe by its Fraud Investigation Service.
Ecclestone has agreed to pay His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs £653m. The court gave him a 17-month prison sentenced, suspended for two years.
Ecclestone spent decades in charge of F1, transforming its commercial activities and turning it into an enormously successful operation which was purchased by current owner Liberty Media in 2016 for $8 billion (£6bn). He was originally given the position of ‘chairman emeritus’ following the sale, but this was withdrawn in 2020 following comments he made about racism in an interview.
In 2014 Ecclestone paid a court in Germany £60 million to end a court case over an alleged bribe payment made eight years earlier to banker Gerhard Gribkowsky. Last year he was arrested and released after paying bail after a gun was found in his possession when he boarded a flight from Brazil to Switzerland.
This article will be updated.
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SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
12th October 2023, 11:29
It’s always weird when the filthy rich commit fraud to, what, stay filthy rich instead of filthy rich minus a bit of short change?
Like what’s the point? Is it really going to change his life to have 3 billion in his bank-account rather than 2,999 billion?
Facts&Stats
12th October 2023, 11:51
Not sure at what amount ‘filthy rich’ starts, but at the top end for many there is this vanity contest to be on the Forbes Rich list (or local equivalent) and then try to get as high as possible.
Just think about Trump, and other lamentable souls, who use tricks to increase their paper wealth just to be (higher) on such lists.
SadF1fan
12th October 2023, 12:06
It’s a combination of greed, plus not wanting to have bureaucrats waste your hard earned money frivolously and without thought. As is the standard criticism on bureaucracy: it’s easy to spend other people’s money without justification or responsibility.
melanos
13th October 2023, 21:38
Eric S. Raymond said it best. The ultra-rich need all the money they can get, just to keep the score.
Martin (@f1hornet)
12th October 2023, 11:58
I know what you mean. I understand it when some local builder doesn’t report some of his income to dodge tax to try and better his life a bit (even if illegal and many would say immoral when the rest of society is paying their way), but when you have more money than you could ever spend, wouldn’t it be easier and less stressful just to be up front about everything? You’ll be a bit less wealthy, but waste less of your time in courts, not have your face in the paper, and have a better reputation and legacy.
I suppose it’s that sort of aggressive behaviour on the edge of legality that probably explains how many people get wealthy in the first place. If you play by the rules, you’ll never become a billionaire.
Sham (@sham)
12th October 2023, 12:01
Very few honest people are very wealthy.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
13th October 2023, 0:30
only poor people consider money to be of real value.
Coventry Climax
12th October 2023, 13:28
It’s part of the mindset that got them rich in the first place.
Given this earth is a closed system, someone getting rich always means someone else (and usually large groups of them, so it’s less evident) pays up for it.
Click on the CNN interview that caused the racial stir in the first place, there’s a silly remark there alright, but also there’s praise for Hamilton by him, as well as a story how he brought the first black person to F1, somewhere around ’85.
His remark about women needing to dress in white and the reason he comes up with for it, are doubtful to say the least though.
Bit of an enigma, this old man.
My dad died at 92. He was a decent person, but had some silly ideas as well sometimes. Whenever we talked about that, he’d always say that back when he was young, things were different, less out in the open, less discussed and -hence?- less thought of. It was just the way things were back then. Getting older myself, I think it’s maybe not an excuse, but there is some merit in it. It took humanity millions of years to get where we are now, and to be honest, that still isn’t anything to write home about.
Ludewig
12th October 2023, 17:31
Pretty much everything that is sold, whether it are goods or services, takes effort to create. So it’s total nonsense that wealth cannot be created because ‘earth is a closed system’ (which is not even true, since the earth is only liveable due to a constant influx of solar energy).
BamBoomBots
12th October 2023, 20:26
It’s plain impossible however to expect infinite growth out of finite resources.
Also, there’s not a net influx of energy from the sun, rather it’s a constant driver for the change from low entropy to high entropy states, if you would be precise.
mystic one (@mysticus)
12th October 2023, 23:58
Well there are multiple limited (finite) resources so technically it is possible to keep growing… Like energy is never lost rather converted to other forms.
Some crooks inflate unit prices of finite resources/products.. Like that happens in pharmas.
Or like in oil/gas, create artificial shortages to increase prices, like creating political or physical wars… Increase demand lower supply…
They just keep finding out how to convert those resources to more profits…
There is no end to greed until death. So if someone wants to be filthy rich, they usually get filthy first before rich… Honest and honorable way is usually much harder to achieve to do as it clean rather than filthy!
Coventry Climax
13th October 2023, 0:41
I did not say wealth can not be created. Those are your words.
I said that if you do ‘create’ it, it comes at a price, inevitably -and inherently- paid for by others. You wouldn’t make a dime if noone paid for your product. But if you make a fortune, its either because you sell millions of your products, or you sell it at an unrealistic high price, or both. At those quantities and/or price, it’s a fortune for you, never for others.
But the price I’m talking about is not only that, it’s also on another level, and not even necessarily paid at the same time, I might add.
Some have made a fortune, over the last 100 years or so. But all of us are starting to pay the price now, and that price will be going up beyond your imagination before too long.
baasbas
12th October 2023, 14:07
@sjaakfoo
It’s always nice to read that to avoid a conviction over a bribe, one could just pay a… bribe… to make it go away.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
12th October 2023, 16:31
Again!
elchinero (@elchinero)
12th October 2023, 14:12
Like fining $#44 50K for his Qatar track excursion: “Yawn; what, what, so fu##ing what”
Ferdinand
13th October 2023, 11:31
I don’t understand that either. But I fear this attitude is what made them so rich in the first place. Whereas I would see it rather as an opportunity to pay taxes (to benefit the community) as a means to soften me feeling guilty over being excessively rich since I can not close my eyes for what is happening in the world. It always amazes me how these folks can look at themselves in the mirror and be pleased with what they see.
CarWars (@maxv)
12th October 2023, 11:54
If you steal a car you go to jail though, even if you plead guilty..
AlanD
12th October 2023, 13:07
Carwars, I agree with the point you are making. If he’d wlked into a bank, caused no damage, no one hurt, and pocketed 400 milion out of the safe, we’d expect a big jail sentence when they were caught. They can’t just give the money back ten years later and pay a bit of a fine on top. If a pickpocket had stolen ten pounds out of the pocket of every tax payer in the UK, we wouldn’t be saying “what a rogue that guy is”.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
12th October 2023, 14:36
They are not going to put a 92 year old in jail, for a non-violent crime where there is no direct victim.
If they did, it would be a total waste of taxpayers money.
SteveP
12th October 2023, 19:00
Quite right, the HMRC and justice system should not try to steal Tory thunder.
AlanD
13th October 2023, 0:55
Broderick: “a non-violent crime where there is no direct victim”
I see what you are saying, but it is also part of the problem, that white-collar crime isn’t treated as that serious, even though we are talking about astronomic amounts of money.
Gerrit
13th October 2023, 6:38
The direct victims were those people waiting for the state to pay their requirements for health, better roads, better infrastructure, etc. that taxes pay for. Bet Ecclestone drove on roads, drank municipal water (or at least flushed his toilet with it), had is number ones and two treated in municipal sewerage works. All infrastructure payed for by taxes.
His victims were those waiting longer for a hip replacement or open heart surgery due to a shortage in the tax take.
There are no victimless white collar crimes. Just you and me waiting longer for tax payer funded services.
melanos
13th October 2023, 21:48
But isn’t it much better for the taxpayers to extract a large fine from the guy (and I’d say 653 M is a pretty large one, myself I’d have difficulty to shell that out on short notice) than to get the guy in jail, costing a lot of money to the treasury and getting nothing from him?
People want jail for these fraudster out of a sense of personal revenge, which I find irrational and misguided.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
12th October 2023, 21:03
The jails in the UK are full – no one is being sent down anymore.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
12th October 2023, 12:11
40 or so years ago when 10’s of millions or a hundred million was a mind blowing amount , for some unknown reason I or my bunch of mates knew four guys .One figured while working as a salesman that everything came out of the same factory. Had a go ended up with stores all over the country and TV and radio. Didn’t change him one bit.Still a knock about.
One other something similar but started to think
he was a big deal. He was and still is. Probably my country’s biggest electrical and furniture retailer .Just a personality thing ,still do anything for you. None of us wanted anything. Just a beer and a chat.
The other became obsessed with wealth and pursuit thereof. He became a monster, jealous of anyone who had quid. Totally unfair ! He believed every dollar in the world was rightfully his. And he went after it no remorse for anyone he stepped on or any hurt he caused along the way.
Guess for some everything is not enough. If they’re printing it I’m grabbing it first cause it should be mine.
Zann (@zann)
12th October 2023, 13:25
ooh, terrific story, and yourself obviously, such mates, and nearly able to count to four :)
Doggy
12th October 2023, 12:59
When I see things like this, it makes me wonder that if the world had a better and less corrupt judicial system how many more people will be publicly exposed.
Maybe I’m pulling this Stat out of my back side, but surely only about 10% (pr less) of the people who break the law ,at that level, get caught.
Coventry Climax
12th October 2023, 13:43
It starts with a mindset. Whenever you meet someone who’s rich, the first reaction is usually: ‘He’s done well for himself’.
And that is, in fact true, but it’s for himself only. It’s not about what he did for others, or to others. Maybe that changes the sense of admiration?
What makes the world ‘better’ (or just different?) would maybe be to first start thinking -and asking- how what he did to get ‘well off’ impacted the rest of the world, both all animals and plants.
elchinero (@elchinero)
12th October 2023, 14:14
“He’s done well for himself’.” Like Madoff or Donald Trump …
Doggy
12th October 2023, 14:39
Interesting observation @coventry climax.
My rebuttal is more on the lines that, I don’t (typically) admire people who are extremely wealthy. I do respect and acknowledge that they have done something (s) that others (including myself) haven’t.
I don’t want to imply that I’m on my high horse here, but I rather sleep and be in peace with myself, than knowing I could be a millionaire and screwed other people over (like elchinero points out at Maddoff).
Is having a strong “moral” compass the reason behind I and most people in the world Is not rich? Absolutely NOT.
I digress, never expected to have a philosophical of this kind conversation on a F1 website lol. I welcome it though
melanos
13th October 2023, 21:58
As a matter of principle, yo do not need to steal from others to get very rich, nor make anybody’s life worse. Maybe most of them do, but it is not a sine qua non. You have to create something good enough to make a lot of people happy to pay to get it from you. Afaik, people was never forced to buy a Harry Potter novel or a Michael Jackson record. Or more to the point here at Racefans, to watch Max racing.
MichaelV12 (@michaelv12)
14th October 2023, 19:28
Ecclestone never forced anyone to pay for anything F1-related either.
If someone didn’t like F1 – did Ecclestone force them to pay for F1 tickets?
I don’t think he did. Take him out of history around 1965 – change the timeline – and watch this very site and everything F1 disappear like zap!
What I would like to know is what the political people has done with the tax money people were indeed forced to pay.
The amount spent by political people is a whole lot more than 650 million. Much larger sums than 650 million have just disappeared into political black holes. What happened, for example, with the pension funds that councils put into Icelandic banks that subsequently crashed? That money just went up in smoke. And nobody was held to account.
How about the bank bailouts of 2008? Those forced bailouts, money taken from the taxpayer = that’s the main reason the young generation can no longer afford a home, period.
But that’s somehow all right and can never, ever, be questioned?
“Pay more tax” is always the answer? Give political people more free money is always right?
Is it, really?
Salty (@salty)
12th October 2023, 13:00
Poor old Bernie. Very easy to get a bit muddled up when you’re in your dottage.
isthatglock21
12th October 2023, 13:01
Meh another one? The mans been doing this for decades and simply getting away with it. Probably got loads more they don’t know about or some they simply can’t prove enough to challenge him in court.
Mark (@blueruck)
12th October 2023, 13:16
Being reported Bernie paid $650M penalty for 18 years of missed taxes
gregwtravels (@gregwtravels)
12th October 2023, 13:21
“That money was just resting in my account.”
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
12th October 2023, 13:25
Down with this sort of thing.
Careful now.
Johnny
12th October 2023, 13:40
white collar criminals always seem to avoid jail time. At least this one was expensive to avoid. This guy can’t fall and break a hip soon enough.
melanos
13th October 2023, 22:10
Now that’s the wrong attitude. What is anybody going to win from that? Would you personally hit him to break his bones? My, my,
Archibald Bumfluff
12th October 2023, 13:44
I’m shocked! Shocked!
… well not that shocked
elchinero (@elchinero)
12th October 2023, 14:16
Good! Claude Raines
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
12th October 2023, 13:46
Stealing millions and still buying his way out of jail, money ad nauseam.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
12th October 2023, 14:19
Wow!! Even for Bernie that payment will sting a little bit. LOL!!
Sorry. But I’ve always liked him. Yes as he freely admits he’s ‘no angel’ – which by the way is one of the best biographies I’ve ever read.
SteveP
12th October 2023, 14:31
There was a story around that someone stole Bernie’s Rolls Royce.
Apparently it was later returned, fully fuelled and valeted.
James Smith
12th October 2023, 15:47
There’s another line about Bernie that I like in Prof Sid Watkins’ book “Life at the Limit”.
“On the surface he is the hard, ruthless and powerful impresario; beneath the exterior, he is a very gentle person. Whenever anybody is in trouble – a driver, a mechanic, someone who works for him in the factory or in the office – he is immediately on the phone to find out if there’s anything he can do, and to get the necessary help. That is something I suppose most of the world doesn’t know about, nor would he want it to. In fact, when I told him I was writing this book he said, ‘If you say anything decent about me, I’ll sue you.”
Bolding is my own emphasis.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th October 2023, 19:54
Yes, it’s a huge amount of money, even for him, however he’s also at a stage where each year there’s a 15% chance of dying on average (more or less depending on any underlying issues one may have obviously), so dare I say he should still have plenty left in the end.
Maciek (@maciek)
13th October 2023, 2:33
Gotta say, don’t get people treating Bernie like some endearing rapscallion. This is someone who, just to name one thing, openly praised Hitler. Hitler…. Hitler for frig’s sake.
melanos
13th October 2023, 22:38
Maybe I missed something, but what Bernie said, as I recall, was that Hitler “was able to get things done” It may sound like open praise if you will, but you can’t deny Hitler did get things done (very bad things mostly, but still). Surely there is a lot of people out there who are really evil at heart, maybe even worse than Hitler, but nobody notices because they are simply unable to get anything done. Fortunately, I should add.
At the end of the day, even people as Pol Pot (who also got things done) or Hitler are only human beings, not embodiments of pure evil. In Leonard Cohen’s “All there is to know about Adolf Eichmann” we are reminded that he had no oversize incisors, talons or green saliva.
anon
14th October 2023, 12:35
melanos, in that same interview, Bernie also made comments that downplayed Hitler’s anti-Semitic policies – that was what caused a considerable amount of outrage at the time.
Furthermore, that was then compounded by the fact that, when he was challenged on those remarks during a later interview, Bernie’s response was to push the common anti-Semitic trope that the global financial system is run by Jewish organisations by claiming that the World Jewish Congress should have ‘used their influence to sort the banks out’ during the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
melanos
15th October 2023, 23:06
Ok, that sounds a lot worse. I was aware only of the “things done” comment, which I find fair enough. And of course you can always cherry-pick a few positive things -no one is perfectly evil-. Like serious anti-tobacco and forest-protecting, avant-la-lettre ecologist laws. BTW another awfully evil dictator who however had very positive (and advanced for his time) “green” policies was Leónidas Trujillo, from the Dominican Republic.
On the other hand I still admire Winston Churchill a lot, especially for his unflinching antifascist stance in the early war. With almost any other plausible leader at the helm and particularly the much favoured Lord Halifax, Britain and Germany would have come to some sort of understanding sealing the fate of a Nazi continental Europe for many years. Luckily, the Holy Fox being a Lord, he had no business in the House of Commons. But anyway if I wanted to cherry-pick unsavory facts about Winston Churchill, the list would go on forever.
David BR (@david-br)
12th October 2023, 15:52
Meanwhile in the UK you can get up to 7 years in prison for benefit fraud.
2/3 billion quid you forgot to mention to HMRC? No biggy. Young enough to be have a young kid but too old for jail. OK.
All makes sense.
Edvaldo
12th October 2023, 16:23
Paying his way out of jail again, of course. He’s 90 years old and isn’t taking all that money to the grave.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th October 2023, 16:47
Isn’t it just disgusting that the more money you have the more things you can get away with? Like putting all your money in tax heavens, getting caught in fraud without much penalties or no jail time, lobbying whoever you want to get the things you want…
But dear me if you ever forget to pay a bill or taxes because you can’t even afford shoes… They really go after you if you’re poor enough!
BamBoomBots
12th October 2023, 21:27
It’s almost as if the design works as intended.
ben (@dubaemon)
12th October 2023, 23:22
Spot on!
Marvin The Martian (@marvinthemartian)
13th October 2023, 10:56
Just to put it in perspective
one man will contribute £653M to the UK tax office. That is the equivalent of 25000 taxpayers that earn £100K per year, or, 115000 taxpayers on £30K a year, or, 225000 taxpayers on minimum wage.
One old guy with a net worth in the billions can just dig into his pocket and dig out what equates to nearly 3 grand a year for nearly a quarter of a million people on minimum wage!
I’m not a socialist but there are people in this world that demand some form of social justice. I don’t care if he’s 92, if he’s able to pay what amounts to the annual care income from three hospitals into the UK coffers, he could probably stand to pay a bit more tax or perhaps spend some time at His Majesty’s Pleasure
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
13th October 2023, 12:25
Bernie agreed to pay £653 million, it’s likely he’s paying that amount from another billion he has hidden away !
Stoo (@stewart51)
13th October 2023, 14:10
I wonder what Putin would have done with him ???
Stood up against a wall and shot then it’s only the cost of a few bullets, exactly what we should have done on behalf of all those people who had sadder lives due to Govt. Cuts and reduced health care.
And to hell with the idea that he was a cute rogue, he was a blight on everyone, a slimy toad of a man (sorry toads).
melanos
13th October 2023, 22:16
Give him plenty of power probably. Russia has long been a kleptocracy, only few of them kleptocrats (or none) are as competent as Bernie.