#F1 Boss Faces Bribery Charges Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone will be tried on bribery charges, a court in the German city of Munich has ruled. Mr Ecclestone is accused of giving a $45m (£27.5m; 33m euros) bribe to a German banker who is serving a jail sentence for receiving the payment. Prosecutors allege that the payment was to ensure that F1 was sold to a private equity group of Mr Ecclestones choice. He admits paying Gerhard Gribkowsky, but denies bribery, saying he was effectively the victim of blackmail. Mr Ecclestone has been defending himself in a separate £90m ($147m) civil claim in Londons High Court. That case was brought by a German media company, Constantin Medien, which claims it lost out financially when the share of F1 belonging to German bank Bayern Landesbank was sold in 2006 to private equity group CVC. (Factfile) Full name: Bernard Charles Ecclestone Born: 28 October 1930, St Peters, Suffolk, Great Britain Net worth: US$3.8bn (£2.5bn) Mr Ecclestone and Gribkowsky, who was on the board of Bayern Landesbank, were accused in court of conspiring to deliberately undervalue F1 when it was sold, in order that Mr Ecclestone would retain control of the sport. The 83-year-old F1 boss has said that he made the payment because the banker had been threatening to reveal false details of his tax affairs. (From BBC News)
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 13:07:49 +0000
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