GENEVA: Swiss prosecutors said yesterday they were probing claims of corruption linked to Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone over the sale of a stake in the multi-billion-dollar business.
“The Geneva prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation following a complaint by the company Constantin Medien,” spokesman Henri Della Casa said.
Della Casa declined to name Ecclestone directly, but confirmed the accuracy of various media reports which said the Formula One chief was the target of the investigation, the latest in a series of legal battles.
Constantin Medien, a German media group, alleges it was the victim of an undervaluation in the 2006 sale of a controlling stake in Formula One to private equity group CVC Capital Partners.
The bulk of the deal involved the sale of stakes owned by German state bank BayernLB and Ecclestone’s Swiss-based family trust, Bambino.
Constantin Medien, which owned an interest in Formula One via BayernLB -- holder of 47 percent of the stock -- alleges that the $820m price tag paid by CVC was intentionally undervalued.
Within months of the deal, the value of CVC’s stake had reportedly jumped to $2.8bn, making it one of the most profitable deals in the private equity group’s history.
The decision to open a probe in no way implies any wrongdoing on Swiss soil, Della Casa underlined.
“The goal is to establish whether the facts constitute an offence under Swiss criminal law,” he explained.In July, prosecutors in the southern German city of Munich charged 82-year-old Ecclestone in relation to a $44m payment he made to German banker Gerhard Gribowsky, raising the spectre of a prison term for the Formula One chief.
Gribowsky, who in August was sentenced by a German court to eight-and-a-half years in jail, worked on the 2006 sale.
Last month, Munich prosecutors delayed setting a date for Ecclestone’s bribery trial until next year, saying that they did not want to act too hastily. AFP
