“Out of all the mistakes I have made in this world probably the worst was
giving everything to my ex that she put in trust because the trustees are
not business people so they sit on a pile of money,” Mr Ecclestone says
in the statement
“They could have bought lots of things cheap at the time. They bought
nothing. That’s the thing that really always upset me about the mistakes you
make in life because I could have invested it.”
He adds that he “never had control of Bambino” and although Mr
Gribkowsky was aware of this he allegedly tried to gain from the situation.
In 2004, BayernLB sued Bambino because the bank claimed it controlled a key
F1 holding company by having more than its agreed allotment of board
directors, including Mr Ecclestone. Although the bank won, Mr Ecclestone was
not found to be a Bambino representative. Mr Ecclestone states that Mr
Gribkowsky later threatened to tell the Inland Revenue that he was running
Bambino.
“All he needed to do was to write a letter to the revenue in England
saying that he believed that this trust is a sham because Mr Ecclestone
controls it all. That’s all he had to do,” Mr Ecclestone says. “If
he had caused some trouble for our trust I would have been in trouble for a
few billion.”
Mr Gribkowsky denies all charges against him and says any payments to him were
for consultancy work. The case continues.