Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone pleaded not guilty to fraud charges

• Ecclestone was charged in July with not telling the UK government about more than £400 million ($473 million) of assets.
• He pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court in central London.
• Ecclestone, 91, was CEO of Formula One Group until January 2017.

Bernie Ecclestone, who used to run Formula One, went to court in London on Monday to face a multimillion-pound fraud charge. He pleaded not guilty.

Ecclestone, who is 91 years old, was charged in July with not telling the UK government about more than £400 million ($473 million) of assets he owned outside the UK.

A lot of photographers and camera crews were waiting for the former head of motorsports when he arrived at Westminster Magistrates Court in central London.

The chargesheet says that he failed to report a trust in Singapore that had a bank account with about $650 million in it.

Ecclestone had white hair and wore a dark suit to court. He only said his name, date of birth, and address in Knightsbridge, which is in west London.

Judge Paul Goldspring let him go free on bail until September 19, when he will have another pre-trial hearing at Southwark Crown Court in south London.

Many people say that Ecclestone, a British businessman whose net worth is estimated to be around $3 billion, changed F1’s business side.

The sale of television rights in the 1970s gave him control of the sport. He was the CEO of Formula One Group until January 2017.

The case was brought for “fraud by false representation” by the Crown Prosecution Service, which brings charges in England and Wales. This was after HM Revenue and Customs did a “complex and worldwide” investigation.