Bernie Ecclestone has admitted payments were made to three team bosses in the late 1990’s to ensure they signed up to the 1998 Concorde Agreement.
The 82-year-old, who is currently embroiled in a larger bribery case involving jailed banker Gerhard Gribkowsky, is currently in court to face other charges surrounding the sale of Formula 1 to CVC Capital Partners.
During the hearing, it came to light that a company called Vulper Holdings, part of Ecclestone’s Bambino Trust, made three payments of £6 million ($10m) to Eddie Jordan, Alain Prost and Tom Wilkinshaw.
Ecclestone denies he made the payments personally, despite claims from a lawyer, though he admitted they were made to persuade those teams to sign the Concorde Agreement.
“The right person to speak to is the person that was dealing with this, because I don’t know whatever it is and didn’t have anything to do with it,” he said.
“However, I know these teams had $10m each,” he added.
However Constantin Medien’s lawyer probed further.
“They were paid to ensure that their teams did sign. Isn’t that right?”
To which Ecclestone responded: “Yes.”
