Formula 1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone has agreed a $100 million settlement to end his bribery case in Munich, in a deal that was first reported on Saturday.
A loophole in German law allows a defendant to pay to end a trial in particular circumstances. On Tuesday German prosecutors ruled that this was applicable in Ecclestone’s case and accepted his offer.
“Through this abandonment [of legal proceedings] the presumption of innocence in favor of Mr. Ecclestone remains intact,” Ecclestone’s lawyers said in a statement. “The monetary compensation is geared to his income and financial situation.”
The F1 commercial rights chief had been on trial since April, accused of paying a $44 million bribe to former banker Gerhard Gribkowsky to help secure the sale of BayernLB’s 47 percent stake in the sport to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in 2006.
Gribkowsky had previously been jailed for accepting a bribe, but Ecclestone had always maintained that he only made the payment because he was being blackmailed. His position at the head of F1 had been under threat had he been found guilty, with a jail term also possible.
In the legal precedent under which the settlement was reached, a defendant is neither pronounced guilty nor not guilty.
