BayernLB

Ecclestone faces another Fraud charge over 2005 sale of F1 to CVC

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thejudge13 reported in an article Oct 9th “Ecclestone to load F1 with a mountain of debt” that German bank, Bayern LB was suing Bernie Ecclestone for $400m and that Ecclestone and his partners appeared to be cashing in as quickly as possible. Today Bluewaters, an investment fund has filed a lawsuit in New York against CVC, Bernie Ecclestone and BayernLB Gerhard Grikowsky. The claim is that Ecclestone conspired to prevent them from buying the rights to F1 in 2005.

Bluewaters says it had put together a bid for F1 for $1bn ahead of the CVC purchase which was to be funded by Alpolo Capital Management and King Street Capital Management. The claim states that Bluewaters had negotiated with the now imprisoned Gribkowsky of the Bayern LB bank, they were prepared to offer more than any other bidder for the sport.

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German Indictments imminent for Ecclestone

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Today Suddeutsche.de reports the following.

The German Bank – Bayern LB – that once held the commercial rights to F1 and paid Bernie Ecclestone 41million Euro’s in commission to find a buyer – is looking to recover its money.

We now know this money actually just circulated on to Gerhard Gribkowsky, a board member of Bayern LB, who was apparently tasked by Ecclestone to ensure the bank sell to Mr. Ecclestone’s client – CVC. On conclusion of this deal Gibkowsky received an alleged $44m from for his troubles from Mr. Ecclestone but he is now serving nearly 9 years in a German jail for his part in the collusion. His conviction is for participating in bribery.

Bayern LB have applied to see the records of the Munich prosecutors who won the Gibkowsky conviction saying, “We are preparing everything to make possible damage claims.” The prosecutors are apparently more than inclined to offer these files up, however, it appears lawyers for Mr. Ecclestone have sought an injunction with the Munich District Court to prevent this.

This may not be the only troubles on the horizon for Mr. Ecclestone, as representatives of Ruth Kirch, widow of the late media tycoon Leo Kirch, also wish to lodge a half a billion dollar lawsuit against Mr. Ecclestone. Kirch used to be the main shareholder of the F1 commercial rights before entering into loan arrangements with Bayern LB offering the rights as collateral.

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