Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has agreed to pay more than £652 million (€755 million) after pleading guilty to tax fraud in a London court, but will avoid a jail term.
The 92-year-old appeared at Southwark Crown Court, where he admitted one count of fraud after failing to declare more than £400m held in a trust in Singapore to the British government.
Ecclestone was handed a 17-month sentence suspended for two years, meaning he will only serve jail time if he reoffends within that time.
Ecclestone, accompanied by his wife Fabiana, spoke only to confirm his name and to enter his plea, just over a month before he was due to stand trial on the single fraud charge.
On 7 July 2015, the billionaire failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around $650 million, worth about £400 million at the time.
The charge stated Ecclestone, who has three grown-up daughters, Deborah, Tamara and Petra, and a young son, Ace, 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".
"Mr Ecclestone did not know the true position and was therefore not in a position to provide a positive or negative answer," prosecutor Richard Wright said today.
He added that Ecclestone had agreed a civil settlement with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), under which he will pay £652.6m covering tax, interest and penalties for 18 tax years between 1994 and 2022.
Ecclestone's lawyer Clare Montgomery told the court that Ecclestone "did not know the true position" about whether he was the beneficiary or settlor of any other trust.
"He should have said 'I don't know' rather than 'No'," Ms Montgomery said.
She added that Ecclestone's answer to HMRC was an "impulsive lapse of judgment".
