Playboy James Stunt, ex-husband of F1 heiress Petra Ecclestone, faces a retrial after a jury failed to achieve a verdict over an alleged £266million money-laundering rip-off.
The flamboyant ex-public schoolboy, who consorted with King Charles in addition to a legal gang boss, was cleared of forgery after a marathon eight-month ‘soiled cash’ trial however jurors failed to achieve a verdict on a cost of cash laundering.
Bankrupt Stunt was on authorized help all through the proceedings, which total left the taxpayer to choose up a invoice estimated at round £300,000 for his barristers alone, a Kings Counsel and his junior.
Including in solicitors’ preparation and court docket prices may simply take that determine previous £1.3m, based on authorized sources. However the fall-out of the trial can even value the Crown itself, within the form of reputational injury to King Charles III.
James Stunt arrives at Leeds Crown Courtroom this morning, the place the jury have been deliberating his cash laundering case
Stunt and his girlfriend Helena Robinson exterior Leeds Fabric Corridor Courtroom throughout a break for lunch earlier this month
The assorted hyperlinks which emerged between flashy Stunt, who glided round London in a fleet of limousines whereas excessive on cocaine, and the then inheritor to the throne Charles, elevate critical questions in regards to the King’s judgement, and of his aides.
Charles was already mired in controversy over the £2.6m in money contained in holdalls and Fortnum and Mason provider baggage, stated to have been accepted for his charities from former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani.
In Stunt’s case, in addition to making donations together with £65,000 to the Prince’s Belief and £50,000 to Dumfries Home, for which he was fulsomely thanked in letters headed Clarence Home or Highgrove, he was additionally in a position to persuade the Prince to just accept quite a lot of work on mortgage.
To the acute embarrassment of not simply the Prince of Wales, however of the late Queen, 4 of these work turned out to be fakes, the work of convicted US artwork forger Tony Tetro.
Charles had supposed to hold the 4 dodgy work, supposedly by Picasso, Dali, Monet and Chagall, in pleasure of place at his 2,000-acre Scottish mansion Dumfries Home, HQ of his private charity the Prince’s Basis.
Stunt framed the grateful letter from the longer term king and displayed it in his workplace to point out off to guests, in addition to thanks notes for donations to his charities, and one other expressing his unhappiness over Lee Stunt’s loss of life.
Stunt additionally tried to make use of the pretend work as collateral to safe a £20m mortgage to repay his mounting money owed, however was unable to fend off chapter.
James Stunt pictured together with his then-wife Petra Ecclestone on the Monaco Grand Prix in Might 2012
Stunt together with his ‘godfather’ Terry Adams, the dreaded boss of London’s greatest crime gang
Then there was the query of an workplace at Stunt’s Mayfair HQ, lent out with, he stated, rent-free, to his ‘pal’ Sir Michael Peat, former principal non-public secretary to the Prince.
Requested in regards to the {photograph} of him with the longer term king in court docket, launched as a part of his defence, Stunt stated he couldn’t be certain precisely when it was taken, however confirmed it was between 2014 and 2016, the interval lined by the legal indictment.
Simply in case the jury hadn’t seen, he informed them: ‘That is now King Charles III, was the Prince of Wales. It was taken both at Clarence Home or St James’ Palace, I am unable to be certain which, however not Buckingham Palace. I visited Buckingham Palace, however that wasn’t this event’, he stated, including: ‘There may be a couple of photograph of me and His Majesty’.
Remarkably, the decide even reminded Stunt’s defence workforce that they have been free to name Charles as a personality witness, to given proof in court docket, which might certainly have compounded his discomfiture over the case — however they apparently demurred.
Continuously telling the jury he was ‘not a name-dropper’, Stunt went on to scatter these of the wealthy and well-known with relish, from Charles himself, to ‘mates’ former PM David and Samantha Cameron, Viscount Linley, Elton John and David Furnish, Princess Charlene of Monaco and numerous members of Gulf state royal households.
One title he didn’t ‘drop’ to the jury, nevertheless, was that of Terry Adams, the dreaded boss of London’s greatest crime gang.
Stunt claims that Adams – as soon as convicted of cash laundering himself – is his ‘godfather’, however the full extent of their affiliation has by no means been clear.
A photograph of Stunt with the longer term King Charles which he was questioned about in court docket
A pretend Marc Chagall portray that Stunt provided the Palace on mortgage
What is obvious is that in a profession spanning virtually 5 a long time, Adams, 67 has dominated London’s underworld with an iron fist, controlling a hefty portion of its drug commerce and allegedly presiding over an estimated 25 murders and scores of horrifically violent assaults with a ruthlessness described by police as ‘worse than the Krays’.
Stunt, 40, was one among eight defendants on trial for laundering the money on behalf of medicine barons, which noticed £266 million deposited within the checking account of Bradford gold dealing agency Fowler Oldfield from 2014 to 2016.
The court docket heard that astonishing quantities of legal money was introduced, contained in binbags, sports activities baggage and holdalls from all around the nation to the premises in West Yorkshire, earlier than the scheme ‘went nationwide’ and the cash pipeline additionally started flowing into Stunt’s prestigious places of work in Mayfair.
In a single photograph produced within the trial, Stunt’s elder brother Lee was proven surrounded by piles of notes within the ‘counting room’ at Stunt and Co, primarily based on the seventh ground of historic Leconfield Home, as soon as the HQ of MI5.
Lee, 37 died of a medicine overdose simply the day earlier than the premises have been raided by police in September, 2016.
The defendants hid the origin of the cash by shifting it by way of an organization checking account and utilizing the proceeds to purchase gold, based on the prosecution.
Unknown to the jury, banking large NatWest has already been fined £264.8m for its personal breach of money-laundering laws for failing to lift the alarm, even after workers reported their suspicions internally about big deposits of Scottish-issued notes with a ‘musty’ odor.
Prosecutor Nicholas Clarke KC informed the court docket it was ‘blindingly apparent this was legal money’.
The cash was all paid into Fowler Oldfield’s checking account.
Police later visited James Stunt’s opulent London workplace (above) as a part of their cash laundering investigation
Stunt, who regularly broke down in tears within the witness field as he gave proof in his rambling and over emotional defence, informed the jury of seven males and 4 girls [correct] that his enterprise – Stunt & Co – was a ‘reliable gold bullion seller’ and the plan was to supply uncooked gold and switch it into high-quality gold bars.
Jurors heard Stunt started a ‘three way partnership’ with Fowler Oldfield in August 2015 however he denied there was something unlawful in regards to the partnership, saying: ‘To be as ostentatious, as I used to be, that is like strolling round with an indication saying ‘arrest me’.’
Prosecutors claimed Stunt grew to become concerned within the alleged community as a result of the breakdown of his marriage to the daughter of F1 billionaire Bernie Ecclestone meant the ‘river of cash’ from her household was ‘working dry’.
Stunt claimed he was ‘not a saved man’ throughout his relationship, however the supply of any earnings apart from his spouse’s inherited tens of millions has at all times been an unanswered query for the person who included the hashtag #billionaire on his Instagram profile web page.
Stunt informed jurors Ms Ecclestone’s household have been ‘very controlling of our marriage’.
Requested by his personal barrister Richard Fisher KC – whose payments are believed to have been paid by authorized help — if he had ever sought consideration, Stunt stated: ‘I am not a Kardashian, I’ve by no means accomplished something to realize fame.
‘Wow, I’ve some cash, I married a well-known man’s daughter.
‘That wasn’t what I needed. I cherished my spouse – I did not love her checking account.’
Nonetheless, when his marriage broke up, Stunt’s life descended right into a cocaine-fuelled spiral of quick vehicles and quick residing – till the cash ran out and he was declared bankrupt in June 2019.
James Stunt with Petra Ecclestone and her father Bernie Ecclestone in Mayfair in 2010
In December 2017, Stunt claimed a £90million haul of gold and diamonds had been stolen from his residence in Britain’s greatest ever housebreaking.
He informed police that thieves had emptied the protected within the basement of his £12million Georgian townhouse in Belgravia final month whereas he slept upstairs.
Money, gold and diamond jewelry was stolen within the raid, stated Stunt, who stated he’d not but acquired round to putting in a high-tech CCTV system on the home after his belongings have been seen being moved in a fortnight earlier.
However former safety guard Justin Kalnutis informed MailOnline in 2018 that neither he nor two different safety workers guarding the property noticed or heard something suspicious that evening and claimed no break-in passed off.
On the similar time, different members of the safety element complained they have been owed a whole bunch of 1000’s of kilos in unpaid wages.
The origins of Stunt’s wealth, if not from the Ecclestone coffers are shrouded in thriller and his personal tendency for braggadocio. He informed Tatler that he made £4m from an oil deal when he was aged simply 16, was given £1m by his father on his twenty first birthday, and ‘made £45m on the largest guess on this planet.’
He has additionally claimed to have made a whole bunch of tens of millions of kilos by way of the transport trade, together with his private wealth supposedly estimated at between £3billion and £4billion.
Stunt and Petra Ecclestone married in 2011 in a £12million ceremony in Rome, and had three kids earlier than their divorce six years later.
Petra’s property included a £100million Chelsea mansion and a £158million residence in Los Angeles.
However in June 2017 they started their court docket battle which noticed Mr Stunt evicted from the Chelsea property.
Stunt had been {accused} of laundering money that was taken to premises owned by Bradford gold seller Fowler Oldfield between January 2014 and September 2016
Mr Stunt then moved in to his Belgravia property. For some time he retained his assortment of basic vehicles together with a Lamborghini and two Rolls-Royce Phantoms.
After the divorce settlement, Stunt stated in an announcement: ‘I’m devastated that my marriage has damaged down. I really like Petra and our kids.’
No particulars of the settlement have been revealed, nevertheless it has been reported that Stunt had signed a prenuptial settlement price £16million.
Throughout a bad-tempered listening to, particulars of their marriage have been laid naked, together with allegations that he was abusive, violent and took overdoses.
By 2018 Stunt lived in a £12million home in Mayfair, West London, and boasted a safety element of 25. However that very same 12 months he had his property frozen on the Excessive Courtroom in a proceeds of crime order related to the cash laundering case.
His ex-wife Petra put a really totally different spin on supposed ‘billionaire’ Stunt’s wealth after they broke up, branding him a saved man.
She described the playboy, as ‘horrible and narcissistic’ and stated: ‘The person just isn’t a billionaire and by no means was. Naively, I funded his life for our complete marriage.
‘James at all times had such a sick obsession with cash and being perceived to be a independently profitable billionaire.’
She even claimed he tasked somebody to compile his Wikipedia entry, naturally inserting the outline ‘billionaire’.
Petra, now 33, and remarried to electrician-turned-Beverly Hills actual property agent Sam Palmer, informed her Instagram followers in 2019 that her ex’s prized Lamborghini was only a ‘equipment automobile with a Ford key’.
Stunt is pictured standing together with his girlfriend Helena Robinson exterior Leeds Fabric Corridor Courtroom through the trial
Petra stated that whereas Stunt appreciated to painting himself as an ‘independently profitable billionaire’, in actuality he spent ‘most of his days in mattress excessive on pharmaceuticals‘.
She added: ‘I blame myself for serving to create the monster he has now turn out to be.’
Nevertheless it wasn’t simply pharmaceuticals – Stunt admitted to the jury that for a time after his divorce he took cocaine every single day for 2 years.
At some point of the trial, Stunt has been residing in Leeds, whose virtues he extolled to the jury at one level.
Every day he arrived at court docket immaculately wearing swimsuit and tie, often together with his glamorous and equally good blonde girlfriend Helena Robinson, 26, on his arm.
Ms Robinson, the daughter of divorced Sussex property brokers James and Jane Robinson, labored in an unique Louis Vuitton watch store in Mayfair when she first met Stunt.
All through many of the trial she was to be seen ready loyally in the back of the massive courtroom whereas her boyfriend sat with the opposite defendants, usually throwing up his fingers, vigorously shaking his head and even making sarcastic feedback, throughout prosecution proof.
Stunt has hailed her as ‘my Helena of Troy’, crediting her with getting him off medication and saving his life.
