A German court has jailed a banker who admitted taking bribes during the sale of a stake in Formula One for 8½ years in a case involving the motor sport group’s billionaire commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone.
Judge Peter Noll convicted BayernLB’s former chief risk officer Gerhard Gribkowsky of tax evasion, bribery and breach of fiduciary trust in a court in Munich.
Gribkowsky was arrested in January 2011 in relation to the sale of BayernLB’s 48 per cent stake in Formula One to UK investor CVC, which Formula One chief Ecclestone was keen to see as a new shareholder. Gribkowsky admitted in court earlier this month that he received $44 million and a job offer as part of a secret agreement with Ecclestone in 2005.
Judge Noll described Ecclestone as the “driving force” behind the payments but said Gribkowsky, in turn, had shown “high criminal energy”. Ecclestone (81) has been subject to an investigation by German prosecutors but no charges have been filed against him.
Britain’s serious fraud office has said it was liaising with the authorities in Germany to consider the allegations. – (Reuters)