Bernie being Investigated

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Very good! So in the ... event of Bernie going behind bars, what would happen?

His offspring get everything. His daughter would take care of their interests and someone (or something or some people) would be hired to "promote Formula One".

AUTOSPORT:

"I am confident that when the full facts have been established, I will be exonerated of blame for any wrongdoing," said Ecclestone in April.

 

[Speshal]

He's a shareholder in something, but exactly what is extremely hard to figure out thanks to the web of parent companies and trusts involved. I've never been able to find out who owns what proportions of the entity "F1".

Delta Topco and Delta Prefco are the two names you need to worry about.

This will make your eyes water

 

[sobriety]

I tried reading that before, but it made my mind bleed, has anyone read it who could precis it for simpletons like me?

 

[Road of Bones]

It's a bit like someone who wants to buy a forest having to pay for every single tree, instead of just buying the land the trees grow in. With one very important tree hidden somewhere in the middle that will instantly render all the other trees devoid of foliage or useable timber unless you water it properly...

 

[Speshal]

Basically - Bernie may well be an "employee" but he has F1 by the balls

 

[Speshal]

This thread has been merged with the previous accusations against Bernie Ecclestone - please bear in mind when commenting on these articles that Bernie has very, very expensive lawyers and CTA only owns a copy of "Law for Dummies" - Thank you.

 

[Road of Bones]

So now he admits that he did make a payment to Gribkowsky :

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93218

But has painted it as blackmail instead of bribery - you do have to take your hat off to the Bolt really...

 

[Brogan]

So to summarise.

This bloke threatened to report Bernie to the Inland Revenue.
Bernie paid him $44 million to keep his mouth shut.
Bernie claims he only did it to avoid the hassle and has nothing to hide from the IR.

Am I the only one having trouble reconciling that?

 

[Road of Bones]

That'll be for the lawyers to decide Brogan...but when you think about it, the notion of Bernie being put in a position of being blackmailed does seem quite unlikely really, doesn't it?

My first thought was that if Bernie really thought he was in trouble, then he'd probably have kept schtum. One assumes that there are threads to the knot that are yet to be unravelled - should be fascinating...

 

[Road of Bones]

This made me chuckle...

http://www.grandprix.com/columns/maurice-hamilton/goes-round-comes-round.html

 

[Mezzer]

I'm not sure we should be surprised, after all wasn't it alleged that he gave Max a 300M bung?

 

[canis]

I am with Brogan on this one. Using blackmail as a defense is ok, but blackmail over a potentially ruinous situation (have you seen the size of fines that can be made by HMRC if you don't pay your taxes?) is possibly a very silly defense.

The bright side is that if Bernie is caught for not payinghis taxes we may pay off the deffecite a lot quicker than we thought originally

 

[RevMaxPower]

Might get as exciting as the races if "phonehack" is anything to go by...