As someone who does tax investigations as part of his living (no I'm not HMRC!) I find that amazing they let him off. Will get to hear about this everytime I try to settle an enquiry............ "but Bernie Exxlestone got a way with it so why can't we..........?"
I hope someone has the intelligence to ask that, as he had already dealt with the taxman how could he be open to blackmail over it, then he'll either have to say he's full of **** or tell the truth about his tax, he's screwed on almost every level, he'll either go down there for this, over here for tax, or he tries to sell a whopper that gets investigated and proves he's guilty of perjury. whichever way you look at it he's screwed. then I remember he's sickeningly wealthy, he'll probably be awarded damages.
I don't find it amazing at all. These deals are quite common. You should watch the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) grilling the HMRC. The HMRC conveniently hide behind the “duty of confidentiality” to keep the deals hidden from the public and Parliament. The PAC receives tip off’s from whistle blowers inside the HMRC and the HMRC go after the whistle blowers using legislation that was designed to fight terrorism. In my experience the HMRC prefers to go after the ordinary guy rather than the big guns. The ordinary guy does not know much about tax and the big guns employ tax experts that know more about the rules than the people that work there. After all, the outside tax experts actually draft the rules. Watch the PAC in action, all their sessions are recorded on video and you can access their archive of the meetings they have held. Very frustrating to watch the HMRC wriggle out of explaining the “sweetheart” deals they agree to.
I do wish he would piss off. He is now up to his usual tricks threatening to bin Monza if he can't get the deal he wants (ie unless they give him loads more money). I reject the idea that F1 can only be a business, or at least I think that without tracks like Monza F1 loses its soul, and would deserve to die. Please please please piss off Bernie. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/114743 "The future of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza is in doubt after Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday that the event was likely to be dropped after 2016. The venue has held the Italian GP every year since the world championship started in 1950, apart from 1980 when the event went to Imola. But with talks set to begin soon about framing a new deal for when the current contract expires in two years' time, Ecclestone is unsure if a new deal will be done. When asked by Gazzetta dello Sport about what the future of the Monza race looked like, Ecclestone said: "It's not good. I don't think we'll do another contract, as the old one has been disastrous for us from a commercial point of view. "So it's bye-bye after 2016.""
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/03/formula-one-owners-sell-stake-bernie-ecclestone Please let this be true.
Yes, we should be careful in case we end up with a corrupt, self-serving leader who believes he is unimpeachable, behaves like a dictator and who has become an embarrassment to to the sport...? Wait a minute.....
Isn't that pretty much what we have already? Daft ideas, says stupid stuff, bribery, corruption, no idea what the actual fans want out of the sport?
Disbanding FOTA was such a dumb move, because the teams have less power than ever now. The teams should run the sport, they know it better than anyone else.
So he gets to bribe the government to get out of being convicted of bribery, and they come cheaper than Gribkowski.
