After the tragic death of his father, racing driver Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve found himself in Switzerland to do his secondary studies at the prestigious Collège Beau Soleil in Villars-sur-Ollon.
There he met Craig Pollock, a ski instructor who would play a key role in the young prodigy’s career by becoming his manager. Pollock will also help him maneuver in tax havens.
In 1992, Jacques Villeneuve competed in Japan, but he made a jump to Quebec to participate, in August, in the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivières, in the Atlantic formula where he finished in third position.
A month later, a company called Goldstar Holdings Corp is incorporated in the Bahamas. This holding company will be used by Jacques Villeneuve to collect his competition and sponsorship income.
At that time, Villeneuve and Pollock were in secret talks with Imperial Tobacco to negotiate Villeneuve’s arrival in Quebec for a three-year contract on the North American Atlantic circuit.
This first maneuver in tax havens could allow Villeneuve to settle in Canada by bypassing the Canadian and Quebec tax authorities. He will not have to pay taxes in Canada on his income since it is his Bahamian company that will receive them.
Which then means zero or extremely low taxation and in any case much more favorable than in Canada
, according to Edoardo Traversa, professor of tax law at the University of Louvain in Belgium and expert in taxation of top athletes.
The use of tax avoidance strategies in tax havens is not illegal in itself, but it deprives states of considerable revenue.
Jacques Villeneuve in discussion with Craig Pollock after a ski trip in Villars, Switzerland.Photo : Getty Images / Claire Mackintosh – EMPICS
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Anonymous shareholders
In January 1994, Villeneuve and Pollock established a trust in the British Virgin Islands, another tax haven where the tax rate was zero.
According to a confidential Pandora Papers document, the trust called The Moritz Settlement
was set up for preserve, manage and protect the family assets of Mr. Craig Pollock and Mr. Jacques Villeneuve
.
It is their trust that becomes a shareholder of Goldstar Holdings, but that does not appear on paper. Goldstar Holdings shares were converted into bearer shares
which are completely anonymous and which offer complete opacity.
Whoever holds the share certificate in their hands becomes the shareholder of the company. The names of real shareholders therefore do not appear anywhere.
The only reason to use bearer shares is that we want to maintain secrecy and not allow third parties, tax authorities or others, to know who is a shareholder.
, according to André Lareau, associate professor in tax law at Laval University.
The Bahamas abolished bearer shares in a reform of its laws in 2000.
The pilot Jacques Villeneuve in October 1999 in Monaco.Photo: Getty Images / Gianni GIANSANTI
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The peak of glory
In 1995, Jacques Villeneuve won the famous Indianapolis 500 miles and raised millions of dollars. This victory helps him access the sacrosanct Formula 1 circuit.
He was offered a two-year contract to compete with the Williams team. It was then that he moved to Monaco in 1996, a country where residents have no tax to pay.
Jacques Villeneuve arrives in a universe where everyone practices tax avoidance, according to Martin Leclerc. He was surrounded only by people who had shelters in tax havens whether it was Bernie Ecclestone or the stable owners.
, he said.
His rise on the Formula 1 circuit is dazzling. In 1997, after a memorable duel with Michael Schumacher, he won the Formula 1 championship at the age of 26 and his fortune continued to swell.
A world champion automatically becomes one of the highest paid drivers in the paddock. It was definitely over $ 15 million per season
, says Leclerc.
In addition to salaries and scholarships, top sports stars also receive substantial income from their image rights. It is common for these image rights to be transferred to companies in tax havens.
The right to the image belongs to me, and I am able, by a fiction of the law, to transfer the income which will come from my name, from my image, from what belongs to me in my brain, to a society outside. It’s amazing, but it’s allowed.
In 1998, a new company, Villeneuve Multi-Media, was incorporated in the Bahamas whose main shareholder is Goldstar Holdings. Villeneuve Multi-Media will collect its image rights in the field of motor racing video games, according to a document from the Pandora Papers.
A few years later, Ubisoft released the video game Speed Challenge – Jacques Villeneuve’s Racing Vision, courtesy of Goldstar Holdings.
Jacques Villeneuve driving his BMW Sauber during the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006.Photo : Getty Images / Bryn Lennon
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Fortune and decline
Jacques Villeneuve’s professional life takes an unexpected turn. He made the jump to a new team, British American Racing (BAR), run by his manager and friend Craig Pollock. He signs a lucrative $ 100 million contract over 5 years.
It was a monumental flop
, recalls columnist Martin Leclerc. Villeneuve was fighting like hell, but driving a trash can so he couldn’t win races unfortunately.
Despite his setbacks on the race track, Jacques Villeneuve continues to live the life of a multimillionaire in Monaco aboard a luxury yacht over 40 meters, the Bliss. In 2002, the Bliss was registered in Luxembourg, a European country without access to the oceans, but with favorable tax rules.
He spends his time between his yacht in Monaco and a chalet in Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland, where he decides to go live. Switzerland offers a tailor-made tax package for wealthy foreign taxpayers who come to settle there.
The same year, a new trust was created for the Quebec pilot in the Caribbean.
According to a document from the Pandora Papers, the trust Glion Trust
established in the British Virgin Islands in November 2002 to preserve, manage and protect the family assets of Mr. Jacques Villeneuve
.
After the end of his contract with BAR, Villeneuve moved to the BMW Sauber team for two years, but things did not turn out well. In 2006, he felt the doors to the world of Formula 1 close.
It was then that Jacques Villeneuve left the comfort and tax advantages of his alpine chalet to return to Quebec.
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