Ecclestone's ex-wife lent adviser $17m, court told
Bernie Ecclestone's ex-wife lent $17m to the legal adviser of her family trust, then took out a court order to recover the sum, the High Court hearing into a $140m damages claim against the Formula One chief executive was told. Stephen Mullens, who represented the Bambino trust from F1 offices in Princes Gate, did not explain to the court why Slavica Ecclestone had given him the loan. He agreed that there had been a dispute about the loan repayment, which led to a "falling out" with Mrs Ecclestone, and that the dispute may have contributed to his removal in May 2011 by Bambino as its appointed director on the board of Delta Topco, the parent company of F1. Asked by Philip Marshall QC for plaintiff Constantin Medien about the dispute, Mr Mullens said there had been "some issues with Mrs Ecclestone" in mid-2010, following her divorce. "Mrs Ecclestone obtained an order from the court whereby the dispute I had with her was settled on confidential terms and that was the end of the matter," he said. The money was repaid in November 2010. Mr Mullens is a defendant in the lawsuit, along with Mr Ecclestone, Bambino and Gerhard Gribkowsky, former chief risk officer at Bayerische Landesbank. Constantin, a German media company, claims that Mr Ecclestone and Mr Gribkowsky were engaged in a "corrupt bargain" to undersell BLB's 47 per cent stake in F1 when it was bought by private equity group CVC in 2005-06. Mr Gribkowsky was jailed last year for eight and a half years for accepting payments totalling $44m from Mr Ecclestone and Bambino. Mr Mullens told the court he was present at a dinner in the Rib Room in Knightsbridge with Mr Ecclestone and Mr Gribkowsky in May 2006 during which the payments were agreed in outline. He said Mr Gribkowsky was seeking an agreement to become a F1 consultant but had been making "insinuations" about a supposed relationship between Mr Ecclestone and Bambino. Mr Gribkowsky was prepared to reveal information to the Inland Revenue if he did not get his way, Mr Mullens said. But he insisted this did not amount to blackmail, he was not concerned whether it amounted to improper behaviour and did not report it to the police or seek legal advice. "I don't think that putting pressure on people is necessarily blackmail," he said. When Mr Gribkowsky's arrest and the payments became public in January 2011, he did not volunteer any information about the payments to a Delta Topco board meeting, hastily convened to discuss the situation. "I didn't think that the subject matter of the meeting was problematical for Delta Topco or CVC. And therefore I made it clear that I had to speak to Bambino before making any comment," Mr Mullens said. Earlier, Mr Ecclestone completed three and a half days of evidence by saying he was unconcerned about the threat of a breakaway series by car manufacturers in 2005, the year when negotiations with CVC began.