Ex-Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone has pleaded not guilty to a tax fraud charge brought against him by UK prosecutors.
Ecclestone faces a tax fraud charge in relation to his alleged failure to declare hundreds of millions of dollars in a Singapore trust to the British government.
The 92-year-old appeared at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday where he confirmed his name and entered a not guilty plea to fraud between July 2013 and October 2016.
Ecclestone will face trial on November 16 following a worldwide investigation by the British tax office.
Prosecutors allege that the ex-F1 boss failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account holding around £400m ($650m) when asked about any foreign trusts he was involved in.
It is understood that Ecclestone claimed he had set up “only a single trust” in favour of his three daughters, and that he was “not the settler nor the beneficiary of any trust in or outside of the UK.”
The charge against him was authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in July last year following an investigation by HMRC, the UK tax office.
Prosecutors accused Ecclestone of acting “dishonestly” and intending to profit from the claims.
Ecclestone stepped down as F1 chief executive in 2017 following a four-decade reign of the sport.
