German prosecutors believe that Mr Ecclestone paid the money to Mr Gribkowsky
to steer the sale of F1 to CVC as it had agreed to retain him as F1’s boss.
They claim that selling to CVC reduced the value of the bank’s stake as
other buyers could have paid more.
Mr Ecclestone denies this and says that Mr Gribkowsky threatened to make false
allegations about his tax affairs to H.M. Revenue Customs if the money
was not paid.
In June last year a court in Germany found Mr Gribkowsky guilty of receiving a
bribe and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison. Mr Ecclestone
was charged last week with paying the alleged bribe but this does not mean
he will go to court. A German judge now has six weeks to decide whether to
bring him to trial.
Mr Gribkowsky is the star witness for the prosecution but Mr Ecclestone’s
lawyers claim he is discredited as he is a convicted criminal and has
changed his testimony several times. Mr Gribkowsky initially claimed that he
received the payment for consultancy work but he switched to a guilty plea
which is understood to have reduced his sentence.
His lawyer Sven Thomas told the Daily Telegraph that “the defence will
file a comprehensive submission with the Regional Court. The main topic of
the submission is the challenge of the different ‘confessions’ of Dr.
Gribkowsky.”
The charges against Mr Ecclestone have not dented CVC’s support. The private
equity firm has not taken any action and has issued a press release saying
that it “will continue to monitor developments in this situation.”
The CVC source says “our actions show that we support Bernie.” His
contract was signed on 24 March 2006 and it gives him a £2.5m annual salary.
It was for “an initial fixed term of three years and thereafter
continuing unless or until terminated by either party giving to the other 12
months’ written notice.”
The source adds “the reality is that Bernie runs the business and he is
much closer to what is going on than we are. We are obviously important in
the sense that we are the shareholders but we don’t run the business on a
day to day basis.”