Bernie Ecclestone offers 25 million euros to resolve corruption case

Hip in the Gribkowsky case. Taking advantage of a quirk of German law, which provides for the possibility of closing a dispute with a settlement agreed by both parties, Bernie Ecclestone would be ready to put the sum of 25 million euro to avoid conviction in the case of corruption. The lawyers defending the 84-year-old insist on the innocence of their client, underlining how the transfer of money between Ecclestone and Gribkowsky took place not for commercial reasons but for personal matters. The defense's thesis did not convince the judges and this is why Mister E. is ready to formalize the proposal to the prosecution and to BayernLB.

Bernie Ecclestone was investigated by the Munich Court for incitement to fraud and corruption. The facts date back to 2006, when BayernLB, which held the commercial rights to Formula 1, sold the package to CVC. According to the judges, the 84-year-old is accused of having paid a bribe of 44 million dollars to Gerhard Gribkowsky, then president of BayernLB, to divert the sale of the rights to CVC, an investment fund linked to Ecclestone same. If Gribkowsky has already been sentenced to 8 and a half years in prison for admitting to having received the money from Ecclestone, the Formula 1 patron has all it takes to circumvent the German laws and avoid ending up in prison for a good ten years. years.

Eleonora Ottonello