Bernie Ecclestone is facing a fraud charge for failing to declare millions of dollars held in a trust here to the British tax authority. - ST FILE
SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): Singapore worked closely with the UK to investigate and prosecute Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone, according to a written reply to parliamentary questions by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
Ecclestone pleaded not guilty in June to a criminal fraud charge for failing to tell British authorities about assets held in a Singapore bank of around US$650 million.
"Singapore proactively shared relevant information with our UK counterparts, which helped them develop their case,” according to the statement late Wednesday (Aug 2). The Monetary Authority of Singapore, police and Attorney General’s Chambers had aided UK agencies in the investigation.
In a 2017 inspection of the unnamed bank, MAS reviewed the bank’s handling of its relationship with Ecclestone, and while "there was room for improvement in the bank’s anti-money laundering processes, it did not find gaps or weaknesses that were systemic in nature.”
DBS Group Holdings Ltd. isn’t the bank in question, CEO Piyush Gupta told reporters Thursday at the lender’s earnings briefing.
Singapore has been hosting the F1 night race since 2008. The cost of organising last year’s race was between S$135 million ($100 million) and S$140 million, Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said in a written reply to a separate parliamentary question. That’s similar to previous years and the government’s share was 60% of the total cost, Gan wrote.
