Flavio Briatore, former boss of the Renault Formula 1 team, was finally released on Wednesday in a river trial for tax evasion which earned him the seizure and auction of his yacht.
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Twelve years after the start of the procedure, the Court of Appeal of Genoa (north-west) canceled the sentence of the Italian businessman to 18 months in prison pronounced in 2018 for having unduly subtracted more than 3.6 million euros in import VAT and more than 800,000 euros in fuel taxes between 2006 and 2010.
The judges also overturned the confiscation of his 63-meter yacht.
The case dates back to 2010, when the police seized the "
Force Blue
" off the Italian coast, ensuring that he was the only user and not just a tenant with his relatives.
The boat, which was flying the flag of the Cayman Islands, then belonged to a company in the British Virgin Islands, which leased it to Flavio Briatore.
But according to investigators, he himself was the owner of the company, and therefore of the yacht.
The prestigious boat, estimated at 20 million euros, was sold at auction by the State in early 2021 for seven million euros to … Bernie Ecclestone, the former boss of Formula 1.
The question now is whether Flavio Briatore will be able to recover the value of his property.
“
Today, after 12 years and six trials, my innocence has finally been recognized.
A real ordeal is fortunately over
, ”he reacted to the Italian press agency Adnkronos.
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