The case is one of a barrage of legal problems that threaten to end his reign
over Formula One. A German court is to decide next year whether he should be
tried for bribery there.
He rejects Constantin’s allegation BayernLB was persuaded to sell to CVC at
that price because he promised multimillion-dollar bribes to the executive
in charge, Gerhard Gribkowsky. “The bank was absolutely delighted at the
offer. The reason it sold to CVC was because it considered it was a very
good offer,” Miles said. He said CVC’s offer was attractive to BayernLB at
a time when the future value of F1 was in doubt because of a threat by
racing car manufacturers to set up a rival series.
Gribkowsky, who received $44 million from Ecclestone after the sale, is
serving 8½ years in jail for corruption in Germany. Ecclestone accepts he
made the payments but says he was blackmailed by Gribkowsky who was
threatening to make claims about him to the British tax authorities.
“These payments were made because Dr Gribkowsky was ‘shaking down’ – in effect
blackmailing – Mr Ecclestone in respect of his tax arrangements,” Miles
wrote in written submissions to the court, also provided to journalists.
“The suggestion that this was all done to entrench his [Ecclestone’s] position
simply does not bear scrutiny,” Miles said, adding that Ecclestone was in
“the strongest position” he had ever enjoyed within Formula One at the time
of these events. “There is an array of evidence that demonstrates that Dr
Gribkowsky was, to put it mildly, something of a fantasist,” Miles wrote in
his written submissions.
Miles cited “ludicrous” suggestions made by Gribkowsky that Ecclestone had
tried to bribe him with sums of $10 million to $20 million at the French or
Australian Grand Prix in 2004. Miles said Gribkowsky had repeatedly changed
his story, at one point mentioning a suitcase containing $20 million in cash
but later dropping that particular detail.