Bernie Ecclestone has denied paying a bribe to a German banker arrested last week for corruption.<\/p>\n
Gerhard Gribkowsky, once representing former F1 owner Bayerische Landesbank, is charged with accepting $50 million amid the sale of the sport’s commercial rights to its current owners CVC five years ago.<\/p>\n
CVC issued a statement insisting it had “no knowledge of, nor any involvement in, any payment to Mr Gribkowsky or anyone connected with him in relation to CVC’s acquisition of formula one”.<\/p>\n
Asked if he has anything to do with the suspicious tale, F1 chief executive Ecclestone said on Saturday: “No; what the German newspapers speculate or the prosecutors suspect is false.<\/p>\n
“It’s absolute nonsense,” the 80-year-old Briton told Bild-Zeitung newspaper.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone admits to knowing Gribkowsky but insists he has “nothing to do with these payments” to him.<\/p>\n
“I don’t even know why I would have given him money,” he insisted.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone denied having bank accounts in the Virgin Islands or Mauritius or knowing a holding company linked to Gribkowsky’s money.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how he got it (the $50m),” he insisted.\u00a0 “As a member of the board of (F1 holding company) Delta Topco he received only a small salary.\u00a0 I know because I was the CEO.<\/p>\n
“You should ask the banks involved who might have paid him,” added Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
“And if CVC says it has nothing to do with the payments, you can be absolutely sure they are telling the truth.\u00a0 I assure you.<\/p>\n
“If German newspapers are writing that I have something to do with it, that’s absolute nonsense and if necessary I will fight it in the courts,” he warned.<\/p>\n
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