http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15664154 Clearly Bernie has not paid a bribe to stop this gut giving details about a tax saving scheme that would have cost him £2bn in tax. All he did was give him a load of money to 'syop him doing silly things' na dhe kew he wanted to start a business. Not a bribe!
Now all we need is for him to be found guilty, stripped of his assets and jailed. Then maybe F1 can be ran by someone who cares about the sport and not lining his own pocket. They may even return F1 to its rightful home on the BBC too. I've never understood why Bernie has the power he does in F1...
It was a deal originally done in the early 80's with FISA when there wre huge issues with the teams regarding money and organisation issues. Him and Max then did another deal whereby Bernie seemed to get personal control of all marketing rights which he did on behalf of the FIA. As anti-competitive practices go, it was pretty big.
According to the BBC article, he's immune from prosecution over his statement at this point in proceedings, so no charge for him yet. I also think this one will run for a while.
But he can still be done by the tax authorities If they haven't already been raiding his/his accountants offices they will be now!
Bernie has little regard for the authorities, they are simply instruments to be used for his own ends, however I think HM tax inspectors will be very interested in his activities and recent comments. It will be interesting to see whether he considers himself to be above the law as many of these types do.
Yes, I think this is true Ernie. And you can bet that he's having a few words with his mate Max Mosley, who's something of a wizard with most matters legal.
I think the most telling part of the proceedings was this (as reported in the Daily Mail); Ecclestone said, "I had no alternative at the time. 'The only alternative was that the British tax authorities followed a case that would have been very expensive for me' ". Read the whole report here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059483⦠I think it's worth bearing in mind that this case could scarcely happen at a more inconvenient time for Bernie: the Concorde agreement is up for renegotiation, and this would appear to weaken his position somewhat⦠(!) Oopsâ¦
lets cut bernie a bit of slack saint everybody likes to put it up the taxman every now and then - maybe i am missing something but i dont really know why bernie gets the stick he does on forums like ours as nobody here really knows what his buisness activities entail , lets also not forget we will have 20 races next year due in no small part to bernie which is a big increase over the 16 we had for many years -- lets give him a bit of credit for that --
Sorry martial, I am not going to give someone who is evading £2bn in tax any slack at all. It is thanks to Bernie that we will now have to pay extra to watch our beloved F1 in order that he can syphon further funds offshore into his non-domicilied wife's offshore trust and avoid paying more tax on the money he gets from us, on which we have paid tax.
"… cut Bernie a bit of slack"?!! Maybe you are missing something, Martial; but I'd prefer to think you are just playing devil's advocate here.
Q. Why would you pay someone £27m to keep quiet about something you hadn't done? A. You wouldn't, you'd only pay them if they were telling the truth. Now, I don;t mind someone pulling a fast one on the taxman when they're earning £80 p/d cash in hand and they have a family to feed, or even a Del trotter, but when it's someone who's pulling in billions while others see all their public services cancelled it's disgusting. Hopefully he'll lose all his assets, then I won;t have to see him or his ugly pretentious 'do you know who I am' daughter on TV
According to Telegraph correspondent Tom Cary http://twitter.com/#!/tomcary_tel , it was actually Flavio Briatore who paid the £millions (uugh, I could smell his stench a mile off) - apparently on behalf of Ecclestone. According to Cary, "Bernie says Gribkowsky became "bitter" when he refused to invest in his business or help him to get into f1", which suggests to me that Bernie felt his position was being compromised (effectively blackmailed) by Gribkowsky. However, I think anyone hoping to see Bernie investigated by HM tax authorities will be disappointed. He's just too slick for that in my opinion, and he's friends with people like ex PM Blair…
i have to speak as i find cc i have never had a problem with bernie , like everybody else on here i dont understand his buisness activities and to be honest i dont really want to as they are of little interest to me , if he puts one up the tax man bully for him the fact that we have 20 races next year with a possible 21 the year after for me is good enough to believe that bernie is doing something correct -
