Former Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone finds himself in legal trouble again after being charged with fraud over a failure to declare more than 400 million pounds ($477 million) of overseas assets to the British tax authority.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Ecclestone, 91, faced one count of fraud by false representation.
“This follows a complex and worldwide criminal investigation by HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service,” said Simon York, Director at the Fraud Investigation Service of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
The first hearing in his case is due to be held on Aug. 22 at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court.
Bernie Ecclestone, in response to being charged with fraud, said he was yet to see the details. The British billionaire indicated it had not come out of the blue.
The Brit has continued to make negative headlines in recent months after being arrested in May in Brazil for possessing an illegal firearm.
The businessman, who has a history of controversial comments, caused offense and drew condemnation in June when he defended Russian President Vladimir Putin in a television interview as a “first-class person” whom he would “take a bullet” for.
He apologized in a video released on Saturday, saying he was not defending the Russian invasion of Ukraine but it earned him little sympathy from the public.
The Brit was ousted as Formula One supremo in 2017 when U.S.-based Liberty Media took over the sport’s commercial rights with a more economy-based vision, transforming the pinnacle of motorsports into a global commercial juggernaut.
