Gribkowsky guilty – sentenced to eight and a half years

The former German banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, have been found guilty in the high-profile criminal case against him, regarding the sale of F1.

Charged with bribery, breach of trust and tax evasion, 54-year old Gribkowsky have been sentenced to eight and a half years in jail. During the sale of Formula 1 in 2005, Gribkowsky allegedly received no less than $44m, £28m, in bribes from Bernie Ecclestone, who has always claimed that Gribkowsky was ‘shaking him down’. The initial claim from Gribkowsky was that the money was a fee for the acquisition of F1, but last week admitted that he had in fact been putting the screws on Ecclestone.

The move from Ecclestone was seen as something the now 81-year old couldn´t escape, because Gribkowsky threatened to inform the British tax services about ‘irregularities’.

“Mr. Gribkowsky was quite sophisticated in shaking me down,” Ecclestone explained. “I’ve got shaken down by a lot of people, but not as subtle as with Mr. Gribkowsky.”

Gribkowsky admits to taking bribes

Former German banker Gerhard Gribkwosky, who is on trial in a large corruption case involving the sale of F1 to CVC Capital Pertners, has now admitted to the court, that he received millions from Bernie Ecclestone and that the allegations against him were  ‘essentially true’.

Gribkowsky has been charged with tax evasion, breach of trust and receipt of corrupt payments. The claim is that Gribkowsky received £28m, or $44m, from Bernie Ecclestone and his family´s Bambino Trust. the claim from Ecclestone has always been, and still is, that Gribkowsky basically threatening to go to the british tax authorities, of Ecclestone did not pay the money.

In mid-2005 the sale of F1 was undergoing and Ecclestone asked if Gribkowsky would serve as a consultant, helping in the sale of F1. However, Gribkowsky did not inform his then employer, the German bank Bayerische LandesBank. Gribkowsky then claimed that Ecclestone ‘asked for a commission of $100 million to help Bayern LB sell the business. He said that he negotiated a lower commission deal of five percent’.

A day in the court with Bernie

On Wednesday Bernie Ecclestone appeared in court in Munich, Germany, to give his statement in the Gribkowsky trial.

Ecclestone has not been formally charged with anything, it is still Gerhard Gribkowsky who is facing charges for accepting bribes amounting to £37m and not declaring them to the German tax authorities. Bernie Ecclestone have since day one confessed to be paying Gribkowsky, but only because he was threatened to do so, he explains. In court on Wednesday, Ecclestone explained that he did not see the payment as part of the deal, the sale of F1 to CVC Capital Partners, but merely wanted to keep Gribkowsky ‘happy and quiet.’

Ecclestone said that he was concerned Gribkowsky would inform the British tax authorities, which could have forced him to pay back-taxes amounting to almost £1.7bn. Bernie later said that he got the distinct notion that Gribkowsky was looking to leave the Bayerische Landesbank, the previous owners of F1, and setting up his own company, for which he needed money.

“I was really worried,” said Ecclestone. “I told him I would think about it, which is the British-polite way of saying no.”

Bernie Ecclestone received £41m in commission for the sale and defended the payment: “I think I should have been paid more. I did a great thing for the bank. Through my help they received much more than they would have otherwise received.”

Is Bernie lying?

Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, lied about the $44m (£27m) he apparently paid to prevent Gerhard Gribkowsky to blow the whistle on their business relationship. That is the claim of court documents.

Ecclestone have always said that he paid the money to Gribkowsky, because the former banker was putting the thumb screws on him, basically forcing him to pay a lot of money to keep Gribkowsky´s mouth shut. However, the court documents now reveal, that not only did Ecclestone pay the money to ensure he kept control of F1 after the 2006 sale to CVC Capital Partners, but he also initiated the entire process of the money transfer. He allegedly offered to open up an overseas account, containing $80m, £50 m, to influence the sale of F1.

Tomorrow Bernie Ecclestone will appear in the court in Germany, taking the stand to offer his statement. Civil actions have also been instigated in the UK against him, this case runs parallel to the German court case.

Both cases are concerning the alleged bribes that Ecclestone and his family company, Bambino Holdings, paid to ensure he had control of the sport. Firstly a $66 m payment was paid by Bayerische Landesbank to Ecclestone and his family, who then paid Gribkowsky $44m as the alleged bribe.

The resulting sale meant that the sale, estimated to be worth $2.8bn, £1.7bn, was finalised by the shares of the Bayerische Landesbank sold for only $814m, £505m, less than a third of the value of the sport.

Ecclestone have always said that he was cornered by Gribkowsky, but this has been refused by the courts.

“Mr Ecclestone’s allegation that the payments related to threats.?.?. rather than to the disposal of the BayernLB holding is untrue,” the documents from the court reads. And more:

“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.”

Read more here and here

New F1 chairman takes over

CVC Capital Partner, the mayority stakeholder of F1, has appointed it´s co-founder Donald Mackenzie as chairman of the holding company Delta Topco.

Several candidates, including former M&S boss Sir Stuart Rose, were lined up as potential chairmen, but eventually CVC decided to look within own ranks in order to find the right person for the job. The decision have been lond over-due, since the position was formerly held by Gerhard Gribkowsky, the former risk manager from Bayerische Landesbank, who was arrested earlier this year for taking a bribe of $44 million, for undervaluing the shares of F1, when the bank sold the sport to CVC back in 2006.

Donald Mackenzie is both a lawyer and a accountant, and it is expected that he, if anyone, can lead F1 instead of having Bernie Ecclestone running the show. Ecclestone is the CEO of Formula One Management, and not as such running CVC, but have been the figure head of the company. Mackenzie is the chairman of Delta Topco, and in reality, the boss of Bernie. The decision to appoint Mackenzie is a sensible one, one that will move Ecclestone in the back and hopefully solve the embarassing bribe-scandal and the SKY/BBC backroom deal.

Ecclestone admits to paying millions to Gribkowsky

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted that he paid former banker Gerhard Gribkowsky $44 millions, but denies it was a bribe.

The Formula One supremo has been under fire for apparently bribing Gribkowsky in relations with the sale of Formula One from former owners Bayerische Landesbank, to CVC Capital Partners. Bernie allegedly paid Gribkowsky the $44 million as a bribe, but Gribkowsky himself claims it was consultancy fees. The money was sifted through to banks in Mauritius and Switzerland. Yesterday Bernie was officially linked to the case, as the public prosecutor in Munich, Barbara Stockinger, charged Gribkowsky and also said that it looked as if Ecclestone had paid the large sum of money as a bribe.

Today Bernie Ecclestone is admitting he paid Gribkowsky the money, but denies it was a bribe. Instead Bernie says that Gribkowsky threatened Ecclestone that he would make life hard for the F1 boss in relation to the family trust, Bambino Trust. Ecclestone says he “never had anything to do with the trust in any shape or form, he threatened that he was going to say that I was running it.”

Ecclestone explains:

“The Revenue obviously had to check everything. It took five years going through that. I didn’t deal with it. The trust had to show it was correct. The taxation people in England at the time were in the middle of settling everything with the trust and the last thing you need is for them to start thinking something different. He was shaking me down and I didn’t want to take a risk. Nothing was wrong with the trust. Nothing at all.

“He never said to me if you don’t give me this I will say that. He left me with the fact that could he do it or not.”

Ecclestone says his lawyers recommended that he should pay up: “They said ‘I tell you what would happen, the Revenue would assess you and you would have to defend it, because you could defend it, and you would be three years in court and it would cost you a fortune. Better pay’.”

Bernie officially linked to Gribkowsky-scandal

Munich prosecutors have now charged former chief risk manager of Bayern LB, Gerhard Gribkowsky, for his role in the sale of F1´s commercial rights in 2006.

In 2006 Gribkowsky was heading the sale of Formula One, from their former owners among these Bayerische Landesbank, who owned the mayority of the shares, to CVC Capital Partners. It is the prosecutors belief that Gribkowsky received a bribe of up to $50 million, money he disguised as consultancy fees and were put in shell companies in places like Mauritius and the Virgin Islands.

In the opening proceedings, not that of a formal hearing, but the indictment itself, Barbara Stockinger, who is the spokesperson for the prosecutor, said that payments of $44 million were paid from the “Formula 1 CEO”, identified in a news release as “Bernie E”, and affiliated copanies woned by Bernie Ecclestone.

Gribkowsky is also accused of using customers money to pay Ecclestone a commision of $41 million, and other funds used to go back to some of Ecclestone´s companies.

Gerhard Gribkowsky is facing a ten-year jail sentence, if found guilty, but as for Bernie Ecclestone, he is denying any knowledge of any payments to or from Gribkowsky.

The official link between the two persons are important, as it opens up for the Munich prosecutors to charge Ecclestone of using bribes in the process of CVC Capital Partners buying F1.

Bernie awaits court in corruption charge

Remember some time ago I reported on a German banker who was arrested, charged with fraud and tax evasion? Name of Gribkowsky? If not, I don´t blame you, because Bernie Ecclestone had been linked to the man, and has done everything in his power since to make us forget about it.

But today could be a very important day for Ecclestone, as German prosecutors are looking into the case to see if he will face charges of a massive corporate corruption case. The story goes, that Gerhard Gribkowsky received a $50m pay-off during the dale of Formula One to CVC Capital Partners, and the former German banker has already been found guilty of fraud and corruption. And if the prosecutors find evidence linking Bernie Ecclestone to the case, the octogenarian could face official corruption charges too.

“I have done nothing so I have no idea what charges they could bring,” Ecclestone said. “I have done what I had to do at all times during this investigation and I have co-operated fully with the people in Germany. As far as I am concerned, there are no problems.”

Gribkowsky was overseeing the deal, as his former employer, the BayernLB Bank, sold their stakes in the sport to CVC in 2006.It was the courts belief that he did so “without evaluation of its current value” which, in turn, earned him “two consultancy contracts totalling $50 million”.

BayernLB, or Bayerische Landesbank, held a 48 per cent stake in SLEC Holdings, which owned the companies that run F1. At the time, 25 per cent were owned by the family trust of Bernie Ecclestone and the remainder was held by other banks.

This is not the first time Gribkowsky is involved in controversy like this. In 2007 he oversaw the purchase of 50 per cent of the Austrian Hypo Group Alpe Adria Bank, which BayernsLB bought for €1.6 bn. The subsequent re-sale for one euro and nationalisation to avoid a collapse, led to his questioning by prosecutors last year.