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F1 Owners Launch Investigation in Gribkowsky Affair

Although the authorities have not launched any type of investigation on Bernie Ecclestone or the Formula 1 owners CVC Capital Partners (at least as far as we know) regarding the conditions in which the latter became owner of the commercial rights of the series some 5 years back, it seems the very CVC company is interested to know the whereabouts of the “Gribkowsky affair.”

As reported by plenty of media a while back, banker Gerhard Gribkowsky was jailed on bribing charges surrounding the selling of F1's commercial rights from BayernLB to CVC Capital Partners back in 2006. According to initial reports, citing sources from the German police, Gribkoswky allegedly received some $50 million in order for the deal to go down without any problems.

While German publications hurried to link Ecclestone to this whole story through several “findings”, it seems the whole affair raised some eyebrows within the CVC company, who has claimed from the very beginning that it “has no knowledge of, nor any involvement in, any payment to Mr Gribkowsky or anyone connected with him in relation to CVC's acquisition of Formula One.”

Consequently, it now appears that “CVC Capital Partners, and the holding company Delta Topco's board, has appointed auditor Ernst+Young and law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to investigate the affair,” as reported by the GMM, citing the Sky News.

According to Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman, the law firm has been asked to look into “the circumstances surrounding the takeover of formula one back in 2006” and was asked to report back to the CVC “within a matter of weeks.
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