Mr Ecclestone denies any unlawful conduct. His defence states: “There was
no conspiracy, no fraud, no combination and no unlawful conduct”.
The F1 boss says he made the multi-million pound payment to Mr Gribkowsky
after being threatened by the banker.
The document states: “Mr Ecclestone did arrange for payments to be made
to Mr Gribkowsky. These payments were made in response to insinuations from
Mr Gribkowsky that he would create difficulties with the UK tax authorities
with regard to the status and efficacy of the Bambino trust arrangements….
Mr Ecclestone chose to pay Mr Gribkowksy off rather than face the
aggravation, delay and potential risks (however unqualified) that Mr
Gribkowsky threatened.”
According to Mr Ecclestone’s defence the payments were channelled through
third party companies with the help of an intermediary, Swiss financial
advisor Andre Favre.
Mr Favre is described as someone who “provided services to Mr Ecclestone
from time to time.”
There is no suggestion that Mr Favre was engaged in any wrongdoing.
As well as admitting the $44m payments Mr Ecclestone details how he was paid a
5pc commission from the sale of F1 to CVC.
Mr Ecclestone contends the payment from BayernLB, the bank which owned a stake
in F1 and employed Mr Gribkowsky, was a brokerage fee.
It was in consideration for Mr Ecclestone’s “highly co-operative”
work on the transaction and was “more than justified in all the
circumstances”, according to his defence.
Bambino Holdings was also paid significant sums on the sale of F1. The $25m
payment was described in the legal papers as repayment of a loan.
Mr Ecclestone claims there is no link between the sale of F1, payments made to
him and his family trust from BayernLB and the subsequent payments to Mr
Gribkowsky.
He points out the payment to Mr Gribkowsky was made some time after the sale
of F1 concluded.
Mr Ecclestone was not available for comment yesterday. Amid the allegations of
bribery and corruption swirling around the F1 paddock as result of the legal
challenges it is easy to forget the central issue at stake in the London
case is on valuation.
German media giant Constantin Medien claims the sport was sold at something
like half its real price as result of the conspiracy between the defendants
causing it to lose out on a profit sharing agreement.
In his defence Mr Ecclestone denies this saying the purchase price was “attractive”.
He says the net proceeds of $765m was the highest price BayernLB could have
achieved for its stake. Mr Ecclestone claims the viability of F1 was under
threat making the sale problematic. The CVC offer valued F1 at $2.1bn
including debt.