London, June 21 (ANI): A German banker has admitted in court that he took bribes from F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for selling the motor racing group to private equity firm CVC in 2006.
The money, which was originally described as a "consultancy fee", amounted to 44 million dollars and was paid by Ecclestone and Bambino, a family trust linked to Ecclestone's former wife.
Banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, during his long-running corruption trial, admitted that the accusations against him were "essentially true" and claimed that the payments had been made to ensure the sale went according to Ecclestone's plans, rather than in exchange for consultancy work.
According to The Telegraph, Gribkowsky said that he had denied being bribed in the past because he was concerned about the future of F1, which has been preparing for a 9 billion dollar Singapore flotation later this year.
In 2006 Gribkowsky was a Chief Risk Officer for the state-owned German bank BayernLB, which had inherited 47.2pc of F1 because it was a creditor of the Kirch media empire, F1's holding company, which had collapsed in 2002, following which his position made him responsible for the sale of F1.
The prosecution claimed that the banker sold the F1 stake to CVC, on Ecclestone's choice, at an undervalued price of 840 million euros rather than choosing the right buyer with better potential return for the German bank.
They alleged this was done in exchange for the 44 million dollar bribe, which also resulted in a 41.4 million dollar payment to Ecclestone from BayernLB.
The banker now faces between seven and nine years in prison on the charges of corrupt payments as well as breach of trust and tax evasion.
However, Eccelstone denied the payments had been bribes and said he was considering whether to take legal action against Gribkowsky. He claimed that Gribkowsky "was bound to say" what he did because "he was going to get twelve years, but he got seven". (ANI)
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