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Ex-Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone charged with UK tax fraud
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Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was charged with fraud after failing to declare more than $477 million of overseas assets. /Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was charged with fraud after failing to declare more than $477 million of overseas assets. /Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Former Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone has been charged with fraud over a failure to declare more than £400 million ($477 million) of overseas assets to the British tax authority.

The 91-year-old British billionaire and ex-racing supremo, faces one count of fraud by false representation, according to the the UK's Crown Prosecution Service.

"This follows a complex and worldwide criminal investigation by HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service," said Simon York, the director of Fraud Investigation Service of the UK's tax body, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

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Ecclestone, speaking from the Spanish island of Ibiza, said he had yet to see the charge, but indicated it had not come out of the blue.

"It's something that has been talked about happening, but not in the way you said, something a little bit different to that, quite a while ago," he said. 

"They've probably got all excited again. Let's see what happens."

In 2015, HMRC demanded Ecclestone pay more than 1 billion pounds ($1.19 billion) in relation to a family trust.

He said then that HMRC had not respected an agreement made in 2008 over the 'Bambino Trust', set up for the benefit of his ex-wife Slavica and daughters Tamara and Petra, and he was taking legal action.

Ecclestone was ousted as Formula One supremo in 2017 when U.S.-based Liberty Media took over the sport's commercial rights.

He keeps an office in London but now spends most of his time abroad, with residences in Switzerland and Ibiza as well as a farm in Brazil.

However, the Briton has stayed in the press since his departure. In May Brazilian police said they had arrested him after finding a handgun in his luggage as he was trying to leave the country.

Ecclestone admitted to owning it but said he was unaware it was in his luggage and was freed to leave after paying bail.

The businessman also caused offence in June when he defended Russian President Vladimir Putin in a television interview as a "first class person" he would "take a bullet" for.

He later apologized for the remark, saying he was not defending Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Source(s): Reuters

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