F1 Majority Stakeholder CVC Plans to ‘Fire’ Ecclestone if Found Guilty

Majority Formula1 shareholders CVC have revealed they would ‘fire’ chief Bernie Ecclestone if he was found guilty of committing a crime with a jailed German banker.

CVC co-founder Donald Mackenzie told a hearing at London’s High Court on Monday that they would have no choice but dump the 83-year-old despite his hold on the business side of the Formula 1.

“If it is proven that Mr Ecclestone has done anything that is criminally wrong, we would fire him,” he said.

Ecclestone is up against a $100 million damages claim over allegations that he sold the business for too little when CVC became the largest shareholder in a deal agreed in late 2005.

Speaking further about the case, Mackenzie revealed a meeting with Ecclestone in February 2011 at which the Formula One head told him of the payment, despite earlier denials.

“He told me that he had had a meeting with one of his colleagues who had reminded him that he had made payments to Gribkowsky and he apologized for having forgotten this,” Mackenzie told the court.

“He told me he had never lied to me and I must say that I had trouble believing you could forget payment of $40 million,” Mackenzie said.

Gribkowsky, former chief risk officer at German bank BayernLB, was jailed for 8-1/2 years in 2012 over a $44 million payment made by Ecclestone and an Ecclestone family trust after the CVC deal.

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