London, Nov.9 (ANI): A bullish Bernie Ecclestone has claimed that there is "no chance" of the British Revenue and Customs service opening an investigation into his complex financial affairs.
Insisting that he had nothing to fear from his turn over the next two days as the star witness in Germany's biggest post-war corruption trial, Ecclestone told Telegraph Sport: "There's not going to be an investigation. No chance. They [HMRC] have already looked into everything to do with the Trust and I've been cleared since about 2008. This has nothing to do with the revenue."
Ecclestone claims that the 41.4 million dollars he received from BayernLB was signed off by the board and was a legitimate five per cent commission on the sale of the sport to CVC.
The 25 million dollars Bambino received, Ecclestone claims, was to pay back a previous loan to the sport.
Ecclestone's lawyer, Sven Thomas, said a 200-page legal submission made ahead of Wednesday's testimony makes clear the payment was not a bribe.
All eyes, however, will be on a packed courtroom in Munich where the murkier side of the sport and the enormous sums of money which pump through it like so much crude oil will come under severe scrutiny.
The stakes, it is fair to say, are huge, both for Formula One and for Ecclestone personally, as the sport's 81-year-old chief executive is grilled over the alleged payment of the multi-million dollar bribe relating to the last sale of the sport five years ago.
Ecclestone may only be a witness in the trial of banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, the former chairman of Formula One's holding company SLEC.
He was keen to stress on Tuesday that he was travelling to Germany of his own volition - but the potential ramifications of his evidence are massive.
Formula One's present owners, CVC Capital Partners, prospective future owners, participants, not to mention its governing body the FIA, will all be following events in Munich closely to see if any of the allegations made against the man who has ruled the sport with an iron fist for the best part of three decades stick. (ANI)
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