Bernie formally indicted for bby German Court who previously convicted German banker

[markabilly]

Is this finally the end of Bernie? Has the cat finally ran out of his 9 lives?

Bernie Ecclestone has been formally served with an indictment from a German judge investigating allegations of bribery, the Formula One chief executive has confirmed.German prosecutors concluded investigations into Ecclestone in May in the wake of the conviction for corruption of a former German banker for receiving payments from the motor racing chief connected with the sale of the sport in 2005.The delivery of the indictment comes as Ecclestone's representatives and other parties attend a court hearing in London to fight claims from Constantin Medien that he undersold the broadcast rights to F1 to CVC, the private equity company.

Bernie Ecclestone indicted by German judge in F1 case - CNN.com

[markabilly]

Bernie seems to regard the case as sort of civil suit.....like the Bank has filed, but it is not. The other party to the crime was sentenced to 8 years in prison

In June, Gerhard Gribkowsky – the banker who had been Bayern’s chief risk officer – was sentenced to eight years in jail for tax evasion and receiving the alleged bribes from Mr Ecclestone.

German prosecutors allege that Mr Gribkowsky was bribed so that he would wave through the sale of F1 to private equity firm CVC for a knock-down price.

Mr Gribkowsky secretly received $44m from Mr Ecclestone, which at the trial he claimed was a bribe.

German bank goes after Bernie Ecclestone - Telegraph

[steveaki13]

It may sound nasty, but I do hope this makes Bernie's position untenable. He needs to move aside and then maybe F1 can begin to move back to a motorsport.

However its possible it could get worse.

[ioan]

Finally!
It was about time this 2nd hand car salesman was taken to the cleaners.

[Zico]

I wish I was as optimistic as you guys... I suspect Mr Teflon will survive this and ride the storm. :/

[markabilly]

I wish I was as optimistic as you guys... I suspect Mr Teflon will survive this and ride the storm. :/

Yes, I think he regards this matter as only a minor annoyance....after all, it is minor compared to stealing F! for a hundred years for about 300 million, and give Max Mosley 320 million as a gift for Max having given F1 to Bernie: SportsPro: Sport's money magazine

there was certainly one great change in Mosley’s life when he finally became independently wealthy. It is believed he received a gratis payment from Bernie Ecclestone of US$300 million as a token of his appreciation. The influx of money signalled a move to the tax haven of Monaco. In England he would have paid 40 per cent tax on the windfall; in Monaco nothing. So in March 2004 Mosley made the decision to relocate there from London. But instead of coming clean and saying he was leaving England for tax reasons, he concocted the most amazing (and untrue) story: he claimed to have been advised that a fatal accident in a race event under FIA jurisdiction within the European Union could result in his arrest. It followed the introduction of a new European arrest warrant. Mosley said: “I have been advised that it would be prudent to relocate outside EU jurisdiction.” It was the most amazing nonsense, swallowed by just about everyone. Of course it would have been embarrassing should Ecclestone’s payment to him have become public. [/size][/font]

All in all the FIA lost US$1.7 billion from 1992 to 2007. One observer says: “Only a halfwit with no financial knowledge would have signed those three deals. They handed Ecclestone and McNally nearly US$2 billion of the FIA’s cash.”

After seemingly negotiating with Ecclestone, Alessi, Boeri, Flimm and Large agreed the 100-year deal for US$300 million. And it was irrevocable.
Mosley claimed he was stunned by it and criticised the four men for doing a bad deal. But as Lovell revealed: “It was a remarkably naïve deal but one that was made possible by Mosley giving the four men carte blanche to avoid any media criticism of himself.”
Mosley later claimed to Lovell that during the negotiation he had been urging Alessi, Boeri, Flimm and Large to “go for more, go for more”.
But then Ecclestone said he only wanted to pay US$200 million. Mosley claimed later that once the four men had agreed the deal, he was powerless to intervene and increase it. Amazingly everyone fell for the story. As one Formula One observer pointed out: “If Mosley had been genuine he would have put the deal out to tender.” And there lay the rub. Mosley should have put the deal out to open tender to achieve the best price. With only one bidder (Ecclestone) a low price was inevitable.
Estimates of what the deal was really worth ranged from US$3 billion to US$6 billion. With interest he was forgoing by paying in advance. Ecclestone was paying only US$450 million. By comparison, during the same period Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB organisation paid US$1.7 billion for English Premiership football rights for just three years for Britain only. By contrast, Ecclestone had brought global rights to Formula One for 100 years. Outsiders estimate they were really worth perhaps as much as US$9 billion, if paid in instalments over 100 years. Certainly the US$320 million Ecclestone actually paid was as one media executive said: “A joke.”
The 100-year deal caused no immediate impact as it was not due to start for eight years. Few people took any notice. When in June 2000 it went before the World Motorsport Council and was approved at an extraordinary meeting of the FIA’s General Assembly, it was passed unanimously.
And Mosley was not finished. Instead of the US$320 million going into the FIA’s coffers it was funnelled into an organisation separately controlled by him called The FIA Foundation. The FIA itself never saw a cent.
[font=Arial][size=84]With all these deals under his belt, Ecclestone proceeded to sell his companies for billions. First he sold a quarter of the business for US$350 million to a venture capitalist. Then he floated a US$1.4 billion Eurobond in September 1998 and paid himself the money as a dividend. Then he sold another 50 per cent of the company to interests connected with Leo Kirch for an effective price of US$1.5 billion. All in all he took US$3.25 billion out of Formula One thanks to his deals with Mosley. And this on top of the US$1.7 billion he had earned from the APM deals and the US$1 billion he had received as commission for his companies. By the time 2007 closed, since Mosley had become FIA president in 1991, Ecclestone had extracted nearly US$6 billion in profits from Formula One. One astute observer said: “It is the biggest heist in history.”