Bernie Ecclestone Bribery Trial: Date, Venue, Details and Comment

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: April 24, 2014

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Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone will appear in a Munich court on Thursday for the start of his trial on bribery charges, for which he could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty. 

The 83-year-old has been in charge of F1 in one way or another since 1974 and the outcome of the trial could have a huge impact on the future of the sport.

The motor racing mogul stands accused of giving a bribe worth $45 million (£27.5 million)—per BBC News—to a German banker to facilitate the sale of a stake in the F1 business to his favoured buyer.

The allegations claim Ecclestone bribed Gerhard Gribkowsky, a former executive at German bank BayernLB, who was in charge of selling the company's stake in F1.

It is alleged that Ecclestone paid Gribkowsky so that he would make sure that the bank's 47.2 per cent stake in F1 was sold to the Brit's preferred buyer, current owners CVC, as reported by Paul Kelso on Sky News.



The payments took place in 2006, per the Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy, and Ecclestone supposedly supported the sale to the private equity firm as they wanted to keep him as chief executive. 

Gribkowsky is currently already serving an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence for receiving the payment but Ecclestone has consistently denied he did anything wrong, claiming he was the victim of blackmail, per the BBC News report.

Ecclestone admits making the payments but maintains that Gribkowsky was threatening to reveal false details of his tax affairs. 

While Ecclestone continues the day-to-day running of his sport, he did step down as director of F1's parent company Delta Topco when the trial was announced in January, per Andrew Benson of BBC Sport.

Christian Sylt of Autoweek also reported that the trial judge, Peter Noll, who convicted Gribkowksy, agreed to schedule hearings only on Tu...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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