A jury has cleared socialite James Stunt of taking part in a £200 million money laundering plot to turn criminal cash into untraceable gold.
The former son-in-law of Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone stood trial accused of allowing his prestigious Mayfair office to be used as “a trusted hub for money laundering”.
A jury sitting at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday found Mr Stunt, 43, not guilty of being involved in the network, that saw £200 million from the proceeds of crime laundered over two years, prosecutors said.
During the trial, prosecutors said that between 2014 and 2016, cash was brought from across the country to Bradford gold dealer Fowler Oldfield, Mr Stunt’s business premises in London, and an office in Hatton Garden, central London, of a company called Pure Nines Limited.
The defendants, including Mr Stunt, were accused of hiding the origin of the money by laundering it through a company bank account and using the proceeds to buy gold which was shipped to Dubai.
The other four defendants – Gregory Frankel, 47, Daniel Rawson, 47, Haroon Rashid, 54, and Arjun Babber, 32 – were found guilty of money laundering.
Mr Stunt and Rawson were the only defendants present during the trial and to hear the verdicts on Tuesday.
Mr Stunt left court after the verdicts were announced and hugged family and friends outside the courtroom.
Rawson started sobbing after his guilty verdict was confirmed, and had to be comforted by a dock officer.
Jonathan Sandiford KC, prosecuting, told the jury how Frankel and Rawson were the owners of Bradford jewellers Fowler Oldfield, which had become the centre of a multimillion-pound money laundering operation by the time police intervened in September 2016.
The jury heard the “dirty money” was delivered by couriers to three sites – Fowler Oldfield, Stunt & Co and Pure Nines – before being paid into Fowler Oldfield’s bank account.
Fourteen of the couriers who were seen on CCTV delivering cash to Fowler Oldfield were convicted of money laundering offences in earlier trials.
Mr Stunt was married to Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter Petra for six years before they divorced in 2017.
During his defence at the trial, Mr Stunt said he never suspected he was “entering into a criminal agreement” when he went into business with Frankel and Rawson.
He told jurors he had gone bankrupt after his assets were frozen during the police investigation. This included, he claimed, sports cars, six properties, bank accounts around the world, more than 100 works of art and £30 million in rare wines.
He said that by 2020 “everyone was locked down but I had been doing lockdown before the pandemic”.
“I was a bit like Howard Hughes, I never went out, I just stayed home,” he said.