F1 boss Ecclestone pays his way out of bribery case

[Syt]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28656050

F1 boss Ecclestone pays to end bribery trial

A German court has agreed to end the bribery trial of Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in exchange for a $100m (£60m) payment from him.

Mr Ecclestone's offer was based on an existing provision in German law.

Earlier on Tuesday German prosecutors accepted the offer from the 83-year-old billionaire who dominates motor racing.

He went on trial in April, accused of paying a German banker 33m euros (£26m; $44m) to ensure that a company he favoured could buy a stake in F1.

He denies wrongdoing.

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.

His personal wealth is put at $4.2bn by Forbes, which ranks him as the 12th richest UK billionaire.

If found guilty he could have faced a 10-year jail term and the end of his decades-long dominance of motor racing.

A BayernLB banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, was allegedly paid by Mr Ecclestone to ensure the F1 stake was bought by a company that he favoured, so that he would remain in charge of the sport.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in 2012 for accepting bribes.

Mr Ecclestone says the payment was given to Gribkowsky after the banker threatened to make false claims about the F1 boss's tax status.

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

Legal get-out clause
Under German law defendants can in certain circumstances "buy" termination of a trial.

The legal proviso exists in order to ease the burden on the courts and to deal with cases where reaching a judgment could prove difficult.

An experienced lawyer quoted by the Spiegelonline news website, Franz Bielefeld, said the proviso, known as Paragraph 153a, was not just applicable to commercial trials, but could be invoked throughout the court system.

But it is unusual for the loophole to be invoked mid-trial - more often it is done before a trial starts, Spiegelonline reports. It has been invoked for some driving offences previously.

Germany's former justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of the Liberal FDP party, criticised use of the loophole in the Ecclestone case, saying it was "not just bad taste - it's really insolent".

She said it allowed rich people to go free, whereas the less well-heeled could face prison.

"I never bribed anyone. Now, how much do you want to drop the charges?

[Grallon]

If he can afford to lose 100M that means the ruling doesn't hurt enough.  The man is the very definition of a scumbag who thrive on the extortion racket.



G.

[DGuller]

  Oh, the irony.  What a karma Houdini that disgusting little twerp is.

[chipwich]

The only person at fault here is the German court.

[Valmy]

Bribing your way out of bribery charges is a tradition that goes way back to the Roman Republic and beyond.  Tradition!

[Duque de Bragança]

More competition for Blatter Besides Platini.