Did Bernie lie?

[WhiteBlue]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... bribe.html

Bernie Ecclestone 'lied' about F1 bribe

Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone lied about the reason he paid the $44m (£27m) "bribe" at the centre of a criminal case in Germany, it has been claimed in court documents.

The allegations come as Mr Ecclestone takes the stand in Germany on Wednesday to give evidence in the criminal trial against Dr Gribkowsky. The case is running in parallel with civil action being taken in the UK.
Jonathan Russell

By Jonathan Russell

8:30PM GMT 08 Nov 2011

The documents seen by The Daily Telegraph allege Mr Ecclestone paid the bribe to ensure he retained control of F1 after its 2006 sale to CVC Partners. Mr Ecclestone has previously claimed it was to stop false allegations of his tax affairs being reported to HM Revenue & Customs.

The documents allege that it was Mr Ecclestone who initiated the payment of bribes, offering to open an account in Singapore containing $80m to influence the sale of F1. The document suggests Gerhard Gribkowsky, the German investment banker on trial in Germany, turned down the $80m preferring to set up a series of consultancy agreements to receive the funds.

The allegations come as Mr Ecclestone takes the stand in Germany on Wednesday to give evidence in the criminal trial against Dr Gribkowsky. The case is running in parallel with civil action being taken in the UK.

Both cases concern allegations that Mr Ecclestone and his family trust, Bambino Holdings, paid huge bribes to influence the sale of F1.

First a $66m payment was made by German bank Bayern Landesbank to Mr Ecclestone and his family trust. The two entities then paid Dr Gribkowsky, the Bayern investment banker who ran the sale, $44m as the alleged bribe.

According to legal papers, the alleged bribes resulted in Bayern's 47pc in F1 being sold to CVC for $814m rather than the $2.8bn it was really worth.

The material undervaluation is alleged to have lost previous owners of F1 Constantin Medien roughly $171m in a profit share agreement.

Mr Ecclestone has claimed he was strong-armed into making the payments under pressure from Dr Gribkowsky. Court documents dispute that view.

"Mr Ecclestone's allegation that the payments related to threats…rather than to the disposal of the BayernLB holding is untrue."

Instead the case brought by German media group Constantin Medien alleges Mr Ecclestone was attempting to retain control of the sport.

"It is to be inferred Mr Ecclestone's motivation for promoting the acquisition by CVC was to safeguard his practical control of the Formula 1 companies."

Mr Eccelstone did not return calls. Keith Oliver, partner at City lawyer Peters & Peters representing Constantin Medien did not comment.

This seems to make a lot more sense than the explanation we have seen in the months and years ago about this seedy affair. Who would deny that Bernie would do anything to keep control of the sport and business of F1?

Most likely he just did exactly that and collided with the law in the process. Hopefully we will eventually get the whole truth out.

And I would not shed a tear if the old bugger goes down in the process.

[SiLo]

Same, I think we need to get either the teams to own the sport, or someone else who is going to do a better job. We can't fault the man though, he has actually done a lot of good for the sport too.

[ringo]

Never had any respect for Bernie anyway.
But now he doesn't have the right to give any lessons to any driver, team or hosting country about morality or values.
The man is a criminal. Worse than any middle east dictator. And we behave like F1 is too good for certain countries, when it's run by Bernie.

[Pup]

Worse than any middle east dictator.

Not that I'm one to defend Bernie. But, really.

[wunderkind]

Bernie never lies, he just never tells the truth.

[aleks_ader]

Bernie never lies, he just never tells the truth.

[beelsebob]

Telegraph 8.11.11 reporting eb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unperson rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling.

[donskar]

Telegraph 8.11.11 reporting eb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unperson rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling.

Is that Bernie's defense?

Bernie has done some good for the sport, and IF he leaves there could be a temporary dip and short-term chaos, but long term the sport needs new leadership, with more transparency and more input by the teams and manufacturers.

[WhiteBlue]

Fota has demonstrated in the last two years that they are able to resolve the rule making problems that the teams were unable to solve in the past. So the Ecclestone dictatorship isn't as urgently needed as it used to be.

One has to admit that Bernie really has the knack of turning every problem around and emerge as a winner from the situation. As Max Mosley expressed it: The guy can enter a revolving door behind you and come out in front of you. But I think his time is now over. We are now learning how he used bribery the last time to keep his position on the top of the pile and I think the next owner of F1 will not be inclined to employ him again.

The stronger the teams are acting in union with the FiA to sort out the rules the less the commercial side is needed to play the umpire for FOTA/FiA. So in the future it could be an issue of just setting the calendar and making money for the sport. This does not require a dictatorial figure such as Ecclestone.

There a signs that he runs out of steam and is unable to rectify some of his own problems. Turkey is a good example. When the Turks effed up by the manipulated podium ceremony Bernie inherited the control of that GP. He failed miserably to develop the commercial side of Istanbul Park. It is without much opposition the second best F1 race track behind Spa. Bernie had five years to develop the place and push motor sport in Turkey. He did nothing. There was not a single promotional event, no promotion of the track when F1 wasn't in town. The entry prices for track days for locals were so ridiculously high that nobody ever used the place. And with no developing motor sport scene there was no attendance at the later race days either.

I'm pretty sure there are men who could do a better job in the meantime than Bernie. It is time for him to go.

[PlatinumZealot]

I like Bernie's overall attitude but what he did was low down and outright criminal.

[donskar]

Fota has demonstrated in the last two years that they are able to resolve the rule making problems that the teams were unable to solve in the past. So the Ecclestone dictatorship isn't as urgently needed as it used to be.

One has to admit that Bernie really has the knack of turning every problem around and emerge as a winner from the situation. As Max Mosley expressed it: The guy can enter a revolving door behind you and come out in front of you. But I think his time is now over. We are now learning how he used bribery the last time to keep his position on the top of the pile and I think the next owner of F1 will not be inclined to employ him again.

The stronger the teams are acting in union with the FiA to sort out the rules the less the commercial side is needed to play the umpire for FOTA/FiA. So in the future it could be an issue of just setting the calendar and making money for the sport. This does not require a dictatorial figure such as Ecclestone.

There a signs that he runs out of steam and is unable to rectify some of his own problems. Turkey is a good example. When the Turks effed up by the manipulated podium ceremony Bernie inherited the control of that GP. He failed miserably to develop the commercial side of Istanbul Park. It is without much opposition the second best F1 race track behind Spa. Bernie had five years to develop the place and push motor sport in Turkey. He did nothing. There was not a single promotional event, no promotion of the track when F1 wasn't in town. The entry prices for track days for locals were so ridiculously high that nobody ever used the place. And with no developing motor sport scene there was no attendance at the later race days either.

I'm pretty sure there are men who could do a better job in the meantime than Bernie. It is time for him to go.

AGREE. Bernie's time is past. As a 60+ fan myself, I can attest to the fact that age brings a certain loss in mental acuity. Enjoy your retirement, Bernie!

[WhiteBlue]

Ecclestone got something to worry about in the US as well.

Ecclestone Faces New $1B Lawsuit Over The '05 Sale Of F1
Published November 20, 2012
F1 CEO BERNIE ECCLESTONE "faces a new legal challenge over the '05 sale of F1 after a private equity group filed a £650M ($1.03B) lawsuit claiming he conspired with others to prevent it from buying the motor racing series," according to Roger Blitz of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Ecclestone "is named along with CVC Capital Partners, which bought F1 for $1.6B in '05, and the German bank BayernLB as defendants in the suit, which was filed in N.Y. on Friday." Also named as a defendant in the suit is GERHARD GRIBKOWSKY. The claimant is Bluewaters Communications Holdings, which ahead of CVC's purchase "had put together a $1B offer for F1 with funding from two other private equity groups, Apollo Global Management and King Street Capital Management." The lawsuit alleges that Bluewaters "negotiated to buy F1 with Gribkowsky and BayernLB and submitted a written offer as well as an offer to pay 10% more in cash than any other bidder" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 11/19).

I hope they get the old bugger. Until now he has been extremely slippery and escaped all consequences of his bribing.

[Cam]

Bernie is well cashed up and can probably outlast any real trial until he croaks. The real shame here - he'll now be remembered only for the negatives. No-one will publish the positives as he's a criminal. He might be rich, but no amount of cash is going to fix that legacy. What a waste.

[WhiteBlue]

http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/11/20/eccl ... on-in-usa/

This case arises out of a $44 million bribe paid by defendant Ecclestone to defendant Gribkowsky using money supplied by defendants CVC and BayernLB. Gribkowsky was prosecuted and convicted of taking the bribe and is now serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence. Ecclestone orchestrated and paid the bribe to preserve his status as head of an automobile-racing empire known as ‘Formula 1. Plaintiff was the high bidder for the purchase of Formula 1, but Ecclestone bribed Gribkowsky—using CVC’s and BayernLB’s money—to steer the sale of Formula 1 to CVC for CVC’s and Ecclestone’s benefit. Plaintiff has been damaged in an amount exceeding $650 million. Each of CVC, Alpha Prema, Alpha Topco, and Delta Topco extracted billions of dollars from Formula 1 that do not rightfully belong to them. CVC, Alpha Prema, Alpha Topco, and Delta Topco have profited enormously from CVC’s wrongful acquisition of Formula 1, which is currently valued at $10 billion. Ecclestone was unjustly enriched by receiving an improper ‘finder’s fee.’ Gribkowsky was unjustly enriched by accepting an improper bribe. CVC, Alpha Prema, Alpha Topco, Delta Topco, Ecclestone, and Gribkowsky must disgorge the profits rightfully belonging to Bluewaters.

Lovely! I wish them all the best.

[Dragonfly]

A second hand car dealer is the most honest man on earth