Gribkowsky arrested

Posted on by Joe Saward

Gerhard Gribkowsky, once the chairman of SLEC, the Formula One group’s holding company, has been arrested in Germany. The news was announced by the Munich public prosecutor this morning. The former BayernLB Chief Risk Officer was arrested because he was unable to explain how $50 million appeared in an Austrian foundation under his control. There has been much speculation in recent days about the money, including the suggestion that it may have been a result of Gribkowsky’s dealings in the F1 world. BayernLB became involved with the Formula One group in 2002 when Leo Kirch’s media empire went bankrupt. The bank had loaned Kirch $1 billion to buy F1 shares and it wanted to recoup that money. The BayernLB shares were sold to CVC Capital Partners in 2005. As an employee of BayernLB, Gribkowsky was, in effect, a public employee and would not have been paid any commissions on deals agreed in the name of the bank.

Published by Joe Saward

4 thoughts on “Gribkowsky arrested”

  1. So finally the poor guy was arrested for not explaining the possesion on §50m convincingly. However, he wasn’t charged for the demise of §12.9b, a much bigger amount by any accounts? It’s a strange World we live in …

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  2. When Kirsh went bust, there was an impressive info-graphic in the FT, it might have been a double spread, so complex were the entities. For reference, the same level of box – linking illustration was only accorded to Telecom Italia, and the Summitomo copper trade, in a whole decade of dailies. I clipped it. Digging it out now, feels like yesterday.

    EM.TV bought more than it could eat. Henson, The Muppets, anything with a halo.

    But there was deep do – do in the Kirsh empire.

    The Landesbanken were complicit, by my view, and it was the temporary end of the CDU de facto majority.

    Off now, but really enjoyed this, thanks for the trip to a decade ago!

    – john

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  4. RobbieMeister,

    I noted the same, and it doesn’t look good, with 20:20.

    But also this is what you’d expect, in a puff piece, published by a rather interested party 🙂

    Bernie held 25% at the time. I’d say nice things about him, if i wanted any kid of deal to go down.

    – j

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