After being fleeced for $100 million dollars by a German high court in a settlement deal over a bribery case, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has now got to fend off a disgruntled BayernLB bank in a civil suit that alleges he engineered the sale of the F1 assets (which the bank owned at the time) for far less than its actual value. In short, the bank now says they feel higher bidders would have come forth had Ecclestone not orchestrated the sale through their own risk manager, Gerhard Gribkowsky.
Ecclestone offered a sum of £16 million to the bank to close their complaint but the bank refused and is looking for its $100 million too. It’s odd as the bank is on record, back during the time of the sale, of stating they were happy with the price and the transaction. Now Ecclestone is not willing to make another offer or settle out of court telling The Express:
“I’m not settling.
“I have got nothing to settle.
“I don’t know what their case is to be honest.
“I think all of it will come to court,” he said.
“I don’t think there is any chance of it settling because the bank has to make an effort to say ‘we tried’.”
I say good on him. The German court got $100 million and now the bank wants $100 million too? Seems like the nation of Germany is just queuing up at the window looking for a Eccelstone payday to me but that’s just my opinion. The legality of the issues remains to be seen but Ecclestone does seem to have a finger on the pulse of it in that the bank has to make a case and I would think that would be difficult to do as they were all over the press talking about how pleased they were back in 2006-2007.
Hat Tip: The Express
