MOTORSPORT: US$100 million frees Ecclestone from bribery case

The 83-year-old Bernie Ecclestone is free to remain at the helm of Formula One after settling the bribery charge against him in Germany by agreeing a payment of US$100 million (A$107.5 million).

Ecclestone – reputed by Forbes magazine to be worth US$4.2 billion – has pledged to pay the German state of Bavaria US$99 million and a children's hospital charity the other US$1 million within a week.

He had faced the potential of up to a decade in jail if convicted in the trial, which was due to run until October.

The settlement comes just days after Ecclestone agreed with Victoria for Melbourne to continue staging the opening round of each year's F1 world championship until 2020, a deal that – according to Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper – will reap the empire he heads $250 million over its final five years.  

Ecclestone admitted paying Gerhard Gribowsky, a former risk manager at Bavarian state-owned Bayern Landesbank, US$44 million several years ago.

However, the F1 tsar denied that payment was a bribe, but rather claimed that Gribkowsky had been blackmailing him and that it was to get him out of his hair. Ecclestone said Gribkowsky had been threatening to give British tax authorities details of his financial affairs.

Gribkowsky is serving an 8 1/2-year sentence for receiving the money, which another German court case in 2012 found to have been a bribe. The payment came at the time of a change in ownership of a majority stake in the F1 business, with Bayern Landesbank supposedly disadvantaged in the sale of its holding (about 15 per cent) to private equity company CVC.

It was alleged that Ecclestone had wanted Gribkowsky to ensure Bayern Landesbank's stake, inherited by the bank after the collapse of the Kirch media empire that had owned it, was steered to CVC because it would retain him as F1's chief executive.

Gribkowsky claimed in giving evidence to the court that Ecclestone had put a suitcase with 20 million (currency unknown) in front of him in a motorhome at the 2005 Australian GP in Melbourne. However, Ecclestone did not attend the 2005 Oz GP and there are no F1 motorhomes at the Melbourne event.

CVC, no longer the majority shareholder in F1 but still with the largest stake, had threatened to oust Ecclestone if he was convicted in Munich. There also have been reports that it may want to get rid of him anyway because of embarrassment brought on the business by some of his dealings.

German law allows for settlement of cases such as the now-aborted Ecclestone trial by the payment of money, but the amount he has agreed is believed to be a record.

It had been reported in London before the trial began that Ecclestone, even though proclaiming his innocence, may have paid up to US$400 million to wriggle out of it. It has been reported that he offered US$33.5 million early last week, raising it to US$100 million by the end of the week. Prosecutors said Ecclestone's "advanced age" and "other mitigating circumstances" gave grounds to accept that amount.

Judge Peter Noll said the charges could not be substantiated in important areas. He asked Ecclestone whether he could raise the US$100 million, to which the diminutive tycoon replied: "Yes."

When asked if the payment could be made within a week one of Ecclestone's lawyers, Sven Thomas, said: "That's do-able."

 Judge Noll told Ecclestone: "I assume we'll only ever see each other again on TV."

Ecclestone replied: "Thank you very much. I will honour my commitment."

His lawyers issued a statement saying: "Through this abandonment the presumption of innocence in favour of Mr Ecclestone remains intact ... the monetary compensation is geared to his income and financial situation."

However, a spokeswoman for the court, Andrea Titz, said: "With this type of ending ... there is no ruling on guilt or innocence. He is neither acquitted nor judged – rather this is a special type of ending."

Very special indeed. Especially when Ecclestone probably would never have been convicted anyway.