After hearing all the evidence during a seven-week trial at the end of last
year, Mr Justice Newey dismissed the claim against all the defendants,
although he ruled that Ecclestone “Ecclestone had entered into a
corrupt agreement” with Gribkowsky in May 2005 under which “Dr Gribkowsky
was to be rewarded for facilitating the sale of BLB’s shares in the Formula
One group to a buyer acceptable to Mr Ecclestone.”
The judge also ruled that it was not Ecclestone’s intention for BayernLB’s
shares to be sold at an undervalue, although Ecclestone was “probably
conscious of a risk that the shares would be sold for less as a result of
his arrangement with Dr Gribkowsky”.
Mr Justice Newey said that no loss to Constantin was proved as a result of
“the corrupt arrangement” with Gribkowsky, adding: “That fact
is fatal to the claim as against all the defendants,” he ruled.
Keith Oliver Head of Commercial Fraud Litigation at Peters and Peters Solicitors
LLP, representing Constantin, said that his client would appeal the
judgement, arguing that the ruling was made on “on technical
grounds…including extremely complicated questions of German law which is
the governing law in the case.”