Bernie Ecclestone says he is relieved to be back running Formula One, but feels “a bit of an idiot” after settling his bribery trial in Germany on Tuesday.
The 83-year-old F1 supremo was back at his desk in London hours after walking out of court in Munich when his case brought to a premature end after he arranged to make a 75 million euro (US$100 million) payment.
In an interview with Britain’s Press Association the British billionaire said: “The bottom line is it’s been three-and-a-half years of aggravation, traveling, meeting lawyers and God knows what else, so it is good it is out of the way.
“This trial has been going on for two days a week and it was going to go on until October. When you’re trying to run businesses it’s not easy trying to resolve things when you’re dealing with lawyers,” Ecclestone added. “In the end what has happened today [Tuesday] is good and bad; The good is the judge more or less said I was acquitted and they [the prosecution] really didn’t have a case. So I was a bit of an idiot to do what I did to settle because it wasn’t with the judge, it was with the prosecutors.”
“Anyway, it’s done and finished, so it’s all right. I’m contented, it’s all fine. This now allows me to do what I do best, which is running F1,” Ecclestone said. “Another three months out would have been bad. I’ve been working weekends to catch up with what I’ve been missing during the week.”
Ecclestone went on trial in April on charges of paying a US$44 million bribe to a Bavarian state bank executive for help in maintaining his 40-year reign over the sport.
News of the agreement drew angry condemnation of the “buyout” legal proviso in Germany, but as controversial as it has proven, such accords are not without precedent.
Although at US$100 million, the Ecclestone accord is believed by far the biggest in German legal criminal history, Ecclestone joins other high-profile figures to have had legal proceedings dropped under the proviso.
In 2006, German cycling champion Jan Ullrich agreed a 250,000 euro settlement in a suspected doping case, while that same year, former Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann had breach of trust charges dismissed after a 3.2 million euro settlement.
In 2001, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl also saw a prosecution against him over secret funding of the Christian Democratic Union under his leadership closed in exchange for payment of 300,000 deutschmarks (about 150,000 euros at current rates). The move meant Kohl avoided conviction for breach of trust toward the party.
Every year tens of thousands of proceedings are halted under the legal proviso, but usually concern lesser charges.
All settlements must be agreed to by the defense, prosecution and the court, and are calculated according to a defendant’s financial means. They should also take into account the public interest and the gravity of guilt. The money paid can go into the coffers of the region where the trial was held or to charity.
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