Bernie Ecclestone launches defence against bribery charges

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone (2nd right) with his lawyers and a translator at court in Munich for his bribery trial. Photograph: Joerg Koch/Getty Images

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has launched his defence against charges of bribing a public official in the first of at least 26 days of hearings at a Munich court.

Ecclestone has denied the bribery charges, claiming he was the victim of a blackmail scam.

In a statement to court, he said: "The alleged bribery never happened. The prosecution's claims are based on statements by Dr [Gerhard] Gribkowsky which are wrong, misleading and inconclusive."

Entering the court at 9.30am on Thursday clutching what looked like a scrapbook, Ecclestone appeared calm and relaxed.

Asked by the judge Peter Noll about his marital status, Ecclestone said he was divorced. "Divorced? I thought you were married," said Noll. "I like to remember the divorced part," quipped Ecclestone, who is married to his third wife, Brazilian Fabiana Flosi.

Noll seemed to appreciate Ecclestone's sense of humour: "Those were the easier questions," he said.

The 256-page indictment against Ecclestone, formulated after a two-year investigation, accuses him of bribing a German banker with the intention of cementing his powerful position at the top of the motorsport.

The banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, was notionally the chief risk assessment officer for the Formula One shareholder Bayern Landesbank at the time. But, the indictment alleges, payments totalling $44m (£26m) and the promise of future employment in Formula One swayed Gribkowsky to act against his employers' interests, easing the sale of Bayern LB's share to a company that had guaranteed to keep Ecclestone in charge as chief executive.

Gribkowsky was sentenced to eight and a half years' jail in 2012 by the same judge presiding over the trial against Ecclestone. The former banker is expected to appear as one of 39 witnesses later in the trial.

In a long personal statement read to the court on Thursday, Ecclestone denied bribing Gribkowsky, claiming instead that the former banker had blackmailed him by threatening to supply false information about his family trust Bambino to the tax authorities. Rather than a bribe, Ecclestone's defence team claims the $44m payments were hush money.

The statement said: "It was clear, he [Gribkowsky] wanted money. He said he had always protected me, but that there was a lot he could say. I often asked my lawyers: 'Is there a German word for blackmail?'"

Far from being an easily manipulated pawn, Ecclestone painted a picture of Gribkowsky as a power-hungry man who dreamed of becoming "Mr Formula One" and owning his own race team.

In one meeting, Ecclestone said, the German had made himself comfortable in the chief executive chair and smoked a cigar throughout, causing Flavio Briatore, then a senior figure in Formula One who had recently quit smoking, to storm out halfway through the meeting.

The indictment acknowledged that Gribkowsky had made "insinuations" about Ecclestone being ultimately in charge of Bambino, but seemed to dismiss the possibility of blackmail as Ecclestone had "no concrete evidence to hand".

Ecclestone's defence is that he had been forced to act even though he felt he had done nothing wrong in his affairs with Bambino, because the risk involved of a reputable banker like Gribkowsky contacting the UK tax authorities was "hard to calculate" and could have led to a fine of "more than £2bn".

"Some people have asked me how it is possible that someone like Bernie Ecclestone can be put under pressure", said his statement. "I say: Yes, it's possible, if you know exactly where to apply the right pressure, and Gribkowksy got the right spot for me and Bambino"

Ecclestone's statement claimed he had been unaware that Gribkowsky, who was employed by a state-owned bank, was a public official. He claimed Gribkowsky had sent him a note saying: "Banking is a people's business. Never ask what a bank can do, but what a banker can do for you. There's no relationship between institutions, but only between individuals."

Far from him alone trying to cling on to his position in Formula One, Ecclestone claimed, the racing teams were supportive of his role and concerned about the growing involvement of banks in the running of the sport.

A spokeswoman for the court did not rule out the possibility of Ecclestone paying a settlement to avoid jail. "There has been no attempt to reach a deal so far, but it remains possible that an arrangement could be made over the course of the trial", said Andrea Titz.