FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[LRW]

And its all over (alomst).....

Prosecution have accepted offer. Just waiting for judge to approve it, which should happen this afternoon....

c#nt.

Bernie Ecclestone has agreed an £60m settlement to end his bribery case in Germany, a Munich court has confirmed.

After being accused of paying a bribe to a former banker, F1 chief Ecclestone has been on trial in Germany since April.

However, state prosecutors in Munich have agreed to end the trial after the 83-year-old Ecclestone offered to pay a settlement worth 100 million dollars.

Full Story

[Hammer278]

What a stud.

[stonemonkey]

Isn't that some sort of a bribe to drop the case?

[LRW]

Isn't that some sort of a bribe to drop the case?

More along the lines of "Here, look, have a load of money, now lets just forget all about it".

What an evil little piece of shizen*.

*Sorry Andrew.

[LRW]

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for accepting bribes. Yet Bernie, the person who actually MADE the bribe, gets away because he can splash the cash.

[Ferrari man 009]

So Bernie WAS guilty then! If FOM/CVC have any morals they will sack him. Any other employee in any other company would be sacked for gross misconduct. He is very lucky to be avoiding jail!

[LRW]

So Bernie WAS guilty then! If FOM/CVC have any morals they will sack him. Any other employee in any other company would be sacked for gross misconduct. He is very lucky to be avoiding jail!

No, no admission of guilt is implied by the payment. He is still deemed innocent in the eyes of the court, so will keep his job.

[LRW]

BBC breaking news have just tweeted that the court have accepted the deal!

[Jabberwocky]

looks like he lives to fight another day then.

Why didn't he just do this at the start of it all and saved a lot of time.

[What's Burning?]

BBC breaking news have just tweeted that the court have accepted the deal!

His wife must be livid.

[Jabberwocky]

just a few pennies out of his allowance from the trust fund.

SWMBO got annoyed with me for getting a parking ticket after a night on the beer and leaving the car in a short stay parking space. I think telling her that I had to pay a £60 Million fine would find me sleeping on the couch for quite a while.

[Ferrari man 009]

Sounds like they think he is guilty but they dont have enough evidence to prove it (think they have to be "beyond reasonable doubt" to give a guilty verdict) so they've agreed a settlement to save Ecclestone the risk of jail time. Plus I don't think they wanted to put an 83 year old behind bars either.

Lucky, lucky man.

[LRW]

Clarifications from BBC website.

BBC Sport wrote:">The ruling means he walks free from the district court in Munich and can continue running the sport. It also means Mr Ecclestone is found neither guilty nor innocent.

........

Prosecutors said Mr Ecclestone's advanced age and other mitigating circumstances gave grounds to accept the $100m offer.

[What's Burning?]

Let's put this into perspective. $100 million dollars is about 2% of Bernie's net worth. Considering that he paid his ex wife 1.2 billion, it looks like foocking the government is a lot cheaper than foocking your ex. He may even be able to claim the fine as a tax write off.

[Jabberwocky]

I think he had to give that money to his wife because the company was in her name as he had already been declared bankrupt. (which restricts you running a company under UK law IIRC)