Bernie Ecclestone on Tuesday told his corruption trial in Munich that he made a $44 million payment to avoid bankruptcy. Prosecutors allege the F1 chief executive paid Gerhard Gribkowsky so the banker would agree to sell the sport's commercial rights to his preferred buyer and retain power. But Ecclestone, 83, said he paid the millions because Gribkowsky was alluding to alerting the British tax authorities about his personal affairs. First, the diminutive Briton testified on Tuesday, Gribkowsky was pressuring him to invest a whopping $250 million in a joint real estate business. "I told him that I was not interested," Ecclestone said. But then Ecclestone, who said Gribkowsky's...
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