Dorna respond to tax allegations

Statement from Dorna Sports

Given the reports in the media regarding an alleged complaint filed by Mr. Pier Carlo Bottero, legal representative of the Italian company Sports and Events Logistics Manager S.R.L. (hereinafter SEL) and the Manos Limpias Union against Dorna Sports S.L. and/or other companies of the Dorna group (hereinafter Dorna) for committing an alleged tax infringement, the company has issued the following statement:

Dorna is not aware of the existence of any complaint filed against it nor Mr. Carmelo Ezpeleta or any of its directors.

In 2014 Dorna formally terminated its trade relationship with SEL for sound business reasons and replaced them with another logistic operator.

Mr Pier Carlo Bottero threatened that were his company not hired again, he would initiate legal and other actions in front of the competition authorities, tax authorities and in the media.

Fulfilling their threat, in 2015 SEL filed a suit in the courts of Torino against the MotoGP Teams Association (IRTA), claiming that they were violating SEL’s right to compete freely in the MotoGP logistic market. The application was dismissed as unfounded, with the imposition of legal costs both in first instance and in the subsequent appeal.

Having declared and paid taxes all the companies of Dorna in their respective European jurisdictions, without any exemption or rebate for their respective incomes, and general applicable tax rates in each case, the supposed allegations made by Mr. Pier Carlo Bottero and SEL are manifestly false and therefore the alleged complaint is unfounded.

Mr. Carmelo Ezpeleta and Dorna have already ordered their lawyers to study and exercise all legal actions that are appropriate to defend their interests and rebuke any libellous and/or slanderous manifestations of Pier Carlo Bottero, SEL or any third party that is attacking the image, prestige and honour of the company or its executives.