Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 Future to be Decided by High Court Case

Bernie Ecclestone’s future as Formula One’s chief executive will be decided by a High Court trial that begins in London tomorrow.

The 83-year-old has overseen F1 for almost 40 years. He now faces allegations that his Bambino family trust paid a bribe worth $44m to Gerhard Gribkowsky, former chief risk officer of the German bank BayernLB. The bribe is claimed to have been to direct the sale of the bank’s 47.2% stake in F1 to CVC, the private equity firm that currently own it.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison last year for receiving the alleged bribe. The charges against him have now led to Ecclestone’s subsequent legal issues.

German media firm Constantin Medien has accused both Eccleston and Gribkowsky of conspiring to undervalue F1 by engineering CVC’s purchase. Constantin sold its own 16.7% stake in F1 to BayernLB in 2003 for $11.6m. The sale was at a loss to Constantin, though on the condition that it would receive a 10% sgare of any additional proceeds if the bank then sold the stake for more than $1.1 billion.

As CVC purchased the bank’s stake for $814m, Constantin did not receive any addition proceeds and is now suing Ecclestone, Gribkowsky and its former legal adviser for $171m in damages. The media group’s lawsuit values the BayernLB holding i January 2006 at “at least $2.8 billion”. It goes on to state: “had it not been for the unlawful conduct, the BayernLB holding would have been sold to CVC or another purchaser for full value in or about January 2006”.

Ecclestone admits paying Gribkowsky, but denies that it was as a bribe. The billionaire argues that Gribkowsky had threatened to tell HM Revenue & Customs that he actually controlled the Bambino trust fund if he did not receive the money. The F1 supremo says he paid the money to Gribkowsky to avoid long and costly legal proceedings.

The case begins tomorrow.

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