F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Fittipaldi under massive debt burden in Brazil

Two-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi is in financial trouble, with multiple creditors chasing down the Brazilian who is being accused of hiding his assets in the US.

According to a report from the Folha de Sao Paula newspaper, Fittipaldi's creditors have initiated 145 legal cases in a bid to recoup an aggregated amount of approximately €8.6 million in recievables.

Furthermore, Safra Bank - Fittipaldi's largest creditor - is accusing the F1 legend and two-time Indy 500 winner of concealing his true assets and living a luxurious life in Florida, in the United States, while fraudulently avoiding his financial obligations in his home country.

In one of the lawsuits, according to Folha de Sao Paulo, the 73-year-old driver claimed that he did not have the funds to pay court costs estimated at €2,000.

"Fittipaldi today is close to living in misery", wrote his lawyer Donato Sato de Souza in a 2019 petition.

Fittipaldi responded to the allegations through his lawyers who rejected the accusations.

The 14-time Grand Prix winner previously found himself in dire straits in 2016 when Brazilian creditors seized assets that included his 1989 Indy 500 winning race car, his 1976 Copersucar F1 car, and numerous trophies from his private museum in Sao Paulo.

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