{"id":6369,"date":"2024-10-20T21:35:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T21:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/f1-tycoons-ex-son-in-law-on-trial-over-200mn-money-laundering-scheme\/"},"modified":"2024-10-20T21:35:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T21:35:42","slug":"f1-tycoons-ex-son-in-law-on-trial-over-200mn-money-laundering-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/?p=6369","title":{"rendered":"F1 tycoon\u2019s ex son-in-law on trial over \u00a3200mn money laundering scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Socialite James Stunt allowed his offices in London\u2019s Mayfair to become a \u201ctrusted hub\u201d for criminality, prosecutors claimed on Thursday at one of the UK\u2019s biggest money laundering trials.<\/p>\n

The former son-in-law of Formula 1 head Bernie Ecclestone was accused of being part of a scheme that allowed criminals to funnel more than \u00a3200mn of \u201cdirty money\u201d into the banking system over two years.<\/p>\n

Stunt, 42, is one of five individuals standing trial at Leeds Crown Court charged with money laundering alongside Gregory Frankel, 47, Daniel Rawson, 47, Haroon Rashid, 54, and Arjun Babber, 32.<\/p>\n

A Bradford-based precious metals and jewellery dealer owned by Frankel and Rawson, Fowler Oldfield, was a financial \u201cgateway\u201d for criminals between 2014 and 2016, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the scheme allowed the criminals, whose identity was unknown, to circumvent financial due-diligence checks. This allowed them to hide the illicit sources of their funds as it \u201cappeared to be a legitimate source\u201d and most of it was used to buy gold, jurors were told.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reputable bank or trader would have insisted on proper due diligence being carried out before accepting the cash or exchanging it for gold,\u201d said Jonathan Sandiford KC, opening the prosecution case.<\/p>\n

The barrister claimed that Stunt & Co, owned by Stunt, took the \u201clion\u2019s share\u201d of profits \u2014 about 70 per cent \u2014 from the scheme. Tens of millions of pounds in cash was dropped by couriers at the offices in Mayfair and deposits were made into Fowler Oldfield\u2019s NatWest bank account, he said.<\/p>\n

Sandiford told jurors that Stunt, the former husband of Petra Ecclestone, allowed the location \u201cto be used for the delivery of criminal cash and some of the gold that had been purchased with it\u201d and it \u201cbecame a trusted hub for money laundering\u201d. <\/p>\n

The court was told that Stunt denies knowing or suspecting the cash was criminal property. <\/p>\n

It heard that, while Frankel accepts that at least part of the cash delivered to Fowler Oldfield was criminal, he denies knowing or suspecting it to be criminal property. Rawson, along with the two other defendants, dispute that the cash was criminal property.<\/p>\n

Sandiford said the most likely source of the cash was drug dealing, although it could also be other illegal activities including fraud, human trafficking or illegal gambling. <\/p>\n

The case continues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Socialite James Stunt allowed his offices in London\u2019s Mayfair to become a \u201ctrusted hub\u201d for criminality, prosecutors claimed on Thursday at one of the UK\u2019s biggest money laundering trials. The former son-in-law of Formula 1 head Bernie Ecclestone was accused of being part of a scheme that allowed criminals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[1102,1103,104,535,1100,1101,1099],"class_list":{"0":"post-6369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial-crime","8":"tag-200mn","9":"tag-laundering","10":"tag-money","11":"tag-scheme","12":"tag-soninlaw","13":"tag-trial","14":"tag-tycoons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finderica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}