19/07/2011
NEWS STORY
State prosecutors in Munich have charged Gerhard Gribkowsky, the former chairman of F1's former parent company SLEC, and the man who organised BayernLB's sale of a stake in F1, with breach of trust and tax evasion.
The German has also been charged with having received corrupt payments, the prosecutors alleging that the money in question having been paid by Bernie Ecclestone.
Ironically, on the day that Rupert Murdoch - head of News Corporation, which is said to be considering making a bid for F1 - faced a parliamentary select committee over the phone hacking scandal, the German prosecutors publicly admitted that Ecclestone is under investigation for bribery and abetting breach of trust.
The prosecutors claim that Ecclestone paid around £27.2m ($44m) to Gribkowsky in the form of a bribe, while the F1 supremo was paid £25.7m ($41.4m) in commissions from BayernLB and his family trust Bambino Holdings was paid £15.5m ($25m). Indeed, the prosecutors allege that Gribkowsky set up and controlled two companies in Austria which between them received $44m from someone known as "Bernard E" who they claim had links with the Bambino Trust.
"According to the results of investigations this is bribery money, whose payment was disguised through two fake consulting contracts with (companies) in Mauritius and the British Virgin Islands," said the prosecutors in a statement. "These payments would not have been asked for were it not for the bribes to be paid to the accused. The Bayerische Landesbank incurred damages of almost $66.5m through the conduct of the accused."
The court must now decide whether to open the case against Gribkowsky.