
Prosecutors in Germany charged Ecclestone with bribing banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, who had been in charge of selling a 47.2 per cent stake in F1 to private equity firm CVC. He was also accused of steering the sale to CVC if it agreed to keep him on as CEO.
Ecclestone suggested Gribkowsky had threatened to make “insinuations” about his tax affairs and threatened to report him to HMRC if he didn’t pay him £27.5m. He said: “He was shaking me down concerning some allegations that he could say to the HMRC that I controlled our family trust, which would have been extremely expensive”.- Next loses battle against HMRC, which claimed the retailer was avoiding tax
- “Breathtaking flagrancy” of Forex bank fines highlights finance culture issues
- Capital Allowances: It’s crunch time for David Cameron
Ecclestone’s lawyers have argued that HMRC has failed to put forward “any rational reason” for scrapping its prior agreement not to tax him.
A spokesman claimed that HMRC should act in accordance with its obligations and the law given that Ecclestone chose to live in the UK, “even though he could have lived and worked elsewhere”.
The judge, Kenneth Parker, ruled that a judicial review to decide whether HMRC had breached its guidance would only be considered after the commercial court decides if HMRC’s withdrawal from its prior agreement was legal. By Shané Schutte Image: ShutterstockShare this story