Back in December 2010, he was beaten and robbed of his Hublot watch.
Then he had to buy the most expensive house in America for his daughter.
Last year, allegations of $44 million in bribes paid to a BayernLB banker surfaced. This year, the banker is back, admitting he accepted the bribes.
The report, via the AFP (via Google) out of Munich, Germany, says Gerhard Gribkovsky has finally admitted to taking the bribes from Ecclestone, stating that the charges against him in the matter were "essentially true." As a result of the bribery allegations, Gribkovsky faces 7-10 years in prison for charges of corruption, tax evasion, and embezzlement. Eccelstone hasn't been charged, and denies any wrongdoing.
Gribkovksy says he accepted the money in 2006 and 2007 while chief risk officer for the state-owned BayernLB bank. BayernLB had acquired the rights to F1 back in 2002, but the bribes were given, according to the BBC, to smooth over Eccelestone's own financial troubles through a complex arrangement of commissions and trust payments.
That may change, however, as the AFP article quotes Gribkovsky as saying Ecclestone told him, a year before making the first payments, that the way F1 works is "you scratch my back and I scratch yours."
