Ecclestone in the news in Germany

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Date: 16th January 2014 at 10:39am
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Many would have thought that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone would have been a little preoccupied of late.

Having previously appeared in the high court in London, news has just broken that he will be tried on bribery charges in Germany over the sale of Formula One.

Ecclestone has previously been questioned as part of a police investigation into a multi-million pound bribery scandal and has been accused of entering into a ‘corrupt agreement’ with German banker Gerhard Gribkowsky.

The case which is in direct relation to Formula One’s sale to private equity firm CVC back in 2006 has already seen Gerhard Gribkowsky jailed for more than eight years for tax evasion, breach of trust and taking £28 million in bribes during the sale of F1, following a trial in Germany.

Gribkowsky, who at the time was overseeing the sale of BayernLB’s stake in F1 had been accused of selling a 48% stake in Formula One without legal valuations while receiving an apparent $50million bribe disguised via consultancy agreements.

That sale according to Media company Constantin Medien cost the company millions as they had been set to receive 10% if the stake in the company had sold for more than $1.1billion, but received nothing as CVC only paid $814million.

Constantin Medien is now suing Ecclestone for $140million [the original claim had been $171million].

Bernie has previously claimed the legal action lacked merit and he and his co-defendants deny the claims of wrongdoing.

But despite all of this, 83-year-old Ecclestone has made an offer to buy the Nurburgring race circuit.

The German Grand Prix currently alternates between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring with both tracks a favourite amongst Formula One fans.

However the Nurburgring has recently been struggling financially and is currently in administration.

‘We made an offer and we now wait for it to be accepted,’

‘We believe we can do more than anyone else for the circuit. There could be a decision as early as in the coming weeks,’ Ecclestone told Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche as quoted by the BBC.