A gift of 50 million dollars

A new big-money affair shakes up Bernie Ecclestone's entourage. According to the German press, a banker would have received the sum of 50 million dollars for having allowed Mister E. to keep the rights to F1 after having sold his shares.

Published on 05/01/2011 à 15:32

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Back in 2005? At the height of a power struggle between the manufacturers involved in Formula 1 and the International Automobile Federation, the “Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association” threatens to leave the championship organized by the FIA to create its own series.

At the same time, and without it being a coincidence, Bernie Ecclestone and the BayernLB bank sold the shares of SLEC (the company which owns the rights to F1) which they held to CVC Capital Partners.

At the center of the affair, a certain Gerhard Gribkowsky was roaming the paddock at that time to convince all the parties involved of the brilliant future of the discipline.

And while the manufacturers and the federation reached an agreement and CVC took control of F1's commercial rights, Gribkowsky negotiated Bernie Ecclestone's new position: a place as representative of the CVC which allowed him to maintain control over all the commercial aspects of the championship.

According to the Seddeutsche Zeitung, Gerhard Gribkowsky then received the tidy sum of 50 million dollars (38 million euros) as “thank you” for having supported Bernie Ecclestone.

This case arose from an investigation launched into the sale of the Hypo Group Alpe Adria bank to the Austrian state for a symbolic euro. BayernLB had bought half of the shares of this bank three years earlier for 1,63 billion euros. According to the newspaper, Gerhard Gribkowsky was unable to provide a plausible explanation for the origin of this money.