Bernie Eccelstone pays a bribe to stop bribery trail....

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/world/europe/formula-one-chief-settles-bribery-case-for-100-million.html

i love that the court spokeswoman's name is Titz. perhaps bernie has taken her motorboating?

We could have found Bin Laden in Ecclestone's living room and he would have gotten away with it.

AngryCorvair wrote: i love that the court spokeswoman's name is Titz.

I am disappointed that I didn't get to see Titz when I clicked on that link.

I mean, we all know that this is how the world works. But it's not usually this blatant.

I don't wish bad things on anyone, but I doubt I'll shed a tear when that crooked old fart bites the big one.

Saw a short piece about this on the German news this evening. There was a legal correspondent on the show and the anchor asked something like "How can this type of settlement for a criminal case be justified under German law?" the correspondent was like "Oh, it happens all the time. Like with speeding tickets, for instance."

Not the same thing. Not impressed.

Money talks and Bernie walks....

If the little troll believes in karma, I'll bet he goes for cryo-preservation to avoid his just desserts.

If they were going to let the little barstard get off with a fine, the least they should have done was make it contingent on him admitting guilt.

I wonder where the money goes?

The higher up you do your crime, the less of a crime it becomes. That's what I've learned from this.

It's not a bribe to end the trial, it's a "settlement". There's a difference. (Note sarcasm).

Ah, that precedent was set in The People vs. Every Rich Corrupt Motherberkeleyer Ever.

Yo dawg, ain't you heard I like bribes? Here's the bribe for my bribe so I can bribe while I bribe!

I seriously hope that no one is surprised by this E36 M3

This is why I simply can't take anything that happens in/around Formula 1 seriously...Or the World Cup for that matter.

CGLockRacer wrote: It's not a bribe to end the trial, it's a "settlement". There's a difference. (Note sarcasm).

It's not a bribe. A bribe would mean that the reason the prosecutors agreed to it was because they wanted to benefit from the money. $100M is a lot of money, sure, but Germany is the 4th largest economy in the world, they have an annual budget of over a trillion dollars.

It's a plea bargain. It's structured differently than we usually see in the US, but that's basically what it is. It means that the prosecutors were worried they'd lose the case, and they wanted to try to get some kind of punishment, even if it's just a monetary one with no admission of guilt.

In reply to codrus:

Pretty much

At least they're doing it the 'murcin way....All the Justice money can buy.

Ever wonder why folks always shoot their friends/families/co-workers before killing themselves when there are ripe targets like Ecclestone all over the place?

I do . . .

etifosi wrote: At least they're doing it the 'murcin way....All the Justice money can buy.

tr00f. He is a sleazy little E36 M3, that's for sure. He makes $5 billion, pays out what? 1/50th of it to make this go away, there's teams running on the ragged edge of bankruptcy so he can continue to suck up the $, or euros, or whatever.

How much damn money does one person really need?

Driven5 wrote: This is why I simply can't take anything that happens in/around Formula 1 seriously...Or the World Cup for that matter.

Or the Olympic committee.

Curmudgeon wrote: How much damn money does one person really need?

A little more than they have.

Curmudgeon wrote:

etifosi wrote: At least they're doing it the 'murcin way....All the Justice money can buy.

tr00f. He is a sleazy little E36 M3, that's for sure. He makes $5 billion, pays out what? 1/50th of it to make this go away, there's teams running on the ragged edge of bankruptcy so he can continue to suck up the $, or euros, or whatever. How much damn money does one person really need?

You do know that he offered all of the teams a stake in the TV rights that he had acquired back in the day, right? $100,000 each and they'd have an equal stake in it. Before he snatched them up, trying to get F1 on TV was a nightmare to make happen. The Lauda/Hunt battle helped push this into the forefront and Bernie acted to protect the sport and bring it to the masses. The fact that he made money doing it, is called capitalism. Anyway, all of the teams turned him down, so he became the sole owner because no one else wanted to. Can't say I blame him, he did what was needed for a sport he truly loved to ensure that it was properly taken care of. The fact that he is a brutal negotiator and business person is why he's never lost any of his battles or challenges.

Much of the problems in F1 are from the teams, their sponsors and the FIA, the TV rights are only one part of that equation and looking back on the history of the sport, inevitable.

Watch this movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2518788/

Do some research outside of that and you'll see a little bit behind the curtain of F1 and Bernie.

In reply to turboswede:

You are correct and you have a point, a very very good point that I fully supported up until a few years ago. I do respect and admire him for what he has done to grow F1. But I do think he's gone off the rails a bit. He's the one that negotiated money for the 'new' teams that came in 5 years ago (Lotus ne Caterham, HRT now dead and buried plus Virgin ne MArussia) At that point there was a promise from Mad Max that cost caps were on the way. In the meantime Bernie agreed to payouts to the teams down the 12th place so they all got some. The cost caps never happened but the payouts now stop at 10th place meaning Caterham is going to get a big fat zero at the end of the year. Bernie could have negotiated payments down to 11th (or 12th-13th, whatever) giving just a little of what the top guys get, but he hasn't. Instead he's in favor of letting the little guys die and having 3 cars in the top teams. Personally I'd rather see 12 teams of 2 cars than 8 teams of 3 cars. Also he's gone nuts with some of the races. Putin's Russia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain!! Come on in the current world how is that acceptable. None of the teams really want to go to Russia, but short of the British Government instigating a ban on business with them they are contractually forced to go

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Well, I think its interesting how people look at expanding the races into Russia and the like as a crazy idea, when in fact he's just following the money. If a country is willing to throw money at F1 to get them to come and race there as a business person you'd be kinda stupid not to do it.

Now, I don't agree with doing this and dropping some of the more famous (or infamous) tracks off the schedule and yes, Russia is hugely corrupt and generally not a happy place to go or support. A good friend of mine works for a company that loans him out to Russia to help setup sawmills and the like there. The stories he shares of that country are just amazing and pretty much mirrors English-Russia.

Ultimately, there has to be a balance point between supporting new opportunities (and not just going to yet another boring new track) and the historical significance of F1.

There will always be a challenge appeasing existing fans, who are steeped in its history and courting new fans and this is true for nearly any sport, with or without wheels.