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By Keith Weir
LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - A multi-million dollar payment toa jailed German banker was an "insurance policy", Formula OneChief Executive Bernie Ecclestone said on Wednesday, denying itwas linked to the sale of a stake in the business to privateequity firm CVC.
Billionaire Ecclestone is defending a $100 million damagesclaim brought by German media firm Constantin Medien who accusehim and three other defendants of deliberately undervaluingFormula One in the 2005 sale to safeguard his position as CEO.
The legal fallout from the sale of a controlling stake inthe business to CVC is threatening Ecclestone's four-decade holdon the glamorous motor sport and complicating stalled efforts tofloat it on the stock market in Singapore.
A Munich court in 2012 jailed Gerhard Gribkowsky, formerchief risk officer at German bank BayernLB, for tax evasion andbribery for taking a $44 million payment after the 2005 sale.
Ecclestone, 83, said he paid Gribkowsky 10 million pounds($16 million) but said that was because the German banker wasthreatening to make damaging claims about a family trust to theBritish tax authorities that could have cost him up to 2 billionpounds.
"What I paid him was a very small amount, what I call aninsurance policy," Ecclestone told a hearing at the High Courtin London, calling it "quite a cheap insurance policy".
He said there was no link to a deal in which CVC paidBayernLB $830 million for a 47 percent stake in Formula One. "This issue was nothing to do with anyone except Gribkowsky andmyself, nobody else."
"SHAKEN DOWN"
Ecclestone has run Formula One for four decades, turning itinto a money-spinner with annual revenue of around $2 billiongenerated by races held around the world watched by hundreds ofmillions of TV viewers.
A German court is due to decide next year whether Ecclestonehimself should stand trial on bribery charges linked to theGribkowsky payment. Ecclestone denies any wrongdoing.
Giving evidence in the damages case brought by ConstantinMedien, Ecclestone repeated previous statements that he wasbeing put under pressure by Gribkowsky who he feared would makefalse claims about his tax affairs.
He denied misleading Formula One board members includingMartin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising group WPP, and Peter Brabeck, chairman of Nestle, aboutpayments to Gribkowsky.
"It wasn't the slightest concern of theirs," he said. "Ipaid him because I was being I said 'shaken down'," he added,saying this was what he had told the Formula One directors in2011 after Gribkowsky had been arrested.
Constantin is the successor to German media firm and formershareholder EM.TV. It says it missed out on a share of theproceeds had the sale price for the stake exceeded $1.05billion.
It argues that Ecclestone favoured a sale to CVC because itplanned to keep him on as CEO of a business which he continuesto run as a hands-on chief executive.
Questioned repeatedly in court about newspaper reportsquoting him after the Gribkowsky arrest, Ecclestone said: "Mostof these journalists should be working closely with, what's hisname, Jeffrey Archer," referring to the best-selling author andformer Member of Parliament.
