Ex-F1 boss Ecclestone admits fraud after failing to declare £400m

Ex-Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has admitted fraud after failing to declare more than £400 million ($492 million) held in a trust in Singapore to the British government.

The 92-year-old said "I plead guilty" at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday while standing in the well of the court wearing a dark suit and grey tie.

On July 7, 2015, the billionaire failed to declare a trust in Singapore with a bank account containing around $650 million.

The charge stated Ecclestone, who has three grown-up daughters, Deborah, Tamara and Petra, and a young son, Ace, had "established only a single trust, that being one in favour of your daughters and other than the trust established for your daughters you were not the settlor nor beneficiary of any trust in or outside the UK".

Before his guilty plea, he had been due to face trial in November on the single fraud charge.