Revealed: Oliver Oakes resigned days after brother arrested with ‘large amount of cash'
The Telegraph can reveal that William Oakes, 31, who is listed as a director of Hitech Grand Prix on Companies House, was arrested in the Silverstone Park area last Thursday, and charged with 'transferring criminal property' last Friday. He was in possession of a large amount of cash, according to police. He has been remanded in custody.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: 'William Oakes, 31, of Rugby was charged with transferring criminal property on Friday, May 2 after he was stopped in the Silverstone Park area in Northamptonshire on Thursday, May 1, 2025 in possession of a large amount of cash. He appeared before Northampton Magistrates' Court on Saturday, May 3, and remanded in custody.'
Oliver Oakes, who was at the Miami Grand Prix at the time, declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph. He handed in his resignation earlier this week. His whereabouts are currently unknown. He is understood to have flown to Dubai following Sunday's Miami Grand Prix.
Hitech's ownership has been a source of discussion in recent years. It was 75 per cent owned by Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin until nine days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 when Oakes took over full ownership.
Mazepin, 57, has close ties to Russia's president, Vladmir Putin. He was one of a number of leading Russian businessmen invited to a meeting with Putin at the Kremlin hours after the invasion began.
Oakes, 37, formed a new company Hitech Global Holdings Ltd on March 11 2022 to take control of the shares, which came from Mazepin's Cyprus-based investment company Bergton Management Ltd.
The new company was formed just three days after Mazepin and his son were sanctioned by both the UK government and the European Union, prompting questions in Parliament.
Oakes said at the time that it was 'always part of the strategic plan for Bergton Management to exit Hitech in early 2022 and myself to own Hitech fully'. But Labour MP Liam Byrne noted that the shares had been 'relinquished' to Oakes rather than bought.
'There does not seem to have been any cash paid out for this major economic interest in a globally significant grand prix company,' Byrne said, adding that there was 'a clear risk that oligarchs are using proxies, and that this misbehaviour is washing up on our shores and in Companies House'.
Mazepin initially bought a stake in Hitech in 2016, when his son Nikita arrived to compete in F3, with the team also gaining Russian minerals company Uralkali as a sponsor.
When Nikita Mazepin made it to Formula One with Haas in 2021, Uralkali became the American team's title sponsor.
Both Haas and Nikita Mazepin had their Haas contracts terminated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when EU sanctions were imposed on them.
Nikita Mazepin has since had his ban overturned by the Court of Justice of the European Union which ruled that 'association' with his father was not enough to warrant it.
Oakes's resignation from Alpine was announced on Tuesday, two days after the Miami Grand Prix, triggering widespread surprise in Formula One.
The Briton, a former junior karting world champion, only joined the Enstone-based team last summer, leading them to sixth place in the constructors' championship in his first season.
It was assumed he had had a falling out with Flavio Briatore, the controversial Italian entrepreneur and executive advisor of the Enstone team. The two are known to have disagreed over their driver line-up this season.
However, Briatore and Oakes issued a joint statement on Wednesday saying that suggestions of a fallout were 'completely false' and adding that the reasons for Oakes' departure were 'not related to [Alpine]' and 'of a personal nature'.
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