dollars

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone on Wednesday handed over a record 100 million dollar settlement to end a German bribery case.

Ecclestone paid 99 million dollars to the Bavarian state authorities and one million dollars to a foundation helping seriously ill children, the Deutsche Kinderhospiz-Stiftung.

The 83-year-old British billionaire had been accused of paying a 44 million dollar kickback to a German banker in 2006 to ensure that the motor racing business was sold to a preferred buyer, CVC Capital Partners.

Ecclestone could have faced a jail term of up to 10 years if he had been found guilty.

The trial has now officially come to an end, a Munich court spokeswoman told dpa.

The case, which opened in April, had been originally due to run until September.

It remains unclear what the Bavarian state government plans to do with the injection of money.

“We are not breaking out in howls of joy,” said Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer.
GNA
PDC

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