F1 Bribery

The BBC article fails to explain that the reason the courts are now willing to settle is because their case has fallen apart as Gribkowsky has contradicted his own statement.

Settlements are the norm. I expect more cases are closed out of court with a settlement than actually make it to trial. But hey ho, its OcUK Motors, don't let facts get in the way of a good rant. Have fun guys.
 
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Skeeter said:
The BBC article fails to explain that the reason the courts are now willing to settle is because their case has fallen apart as Gribkowsky has contradicted his own statement.

Settlements are the norm. I expect more cases are closed out of court with a settlement than actually make it to trial. But hey ho, its OcUK Motors, don't let facts get in the way of a good rant. Have fun guys.
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If this is the case then why would Bernie pay if he is so innocent?

Simple he's not I bet this is the sort of stunts that got him the wealth he has today.

Plus this sort of money is nothing to him you would expect them to of come out with something a lot higher he purchases homes for this sort of money.
 
To be fair he isnt likely to notice 200m let alone a paltry 60m ( legal fees are probsbly in the 10s of millions)

Still sounds like a legal bribe to me lol
 
FrankJH said:
Still sounds like a legal bribe to me lol
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I'm not a legal know-it-all, let alone a German one, but yes. It seems if you're rich you can bypass the legal system (or for certain potential crimes anyway - I'm sure you can't run amok with an AK-47 in a pub and pay a few million to avoid a verdict!).
 
Skeeter said:
The BBC article fails to explain that the reason the courts are now willing to settle is because their case has fallen apart as Gribkowsky has contradicted his own statement.

Settlements are the norm. I expect more cases are closed out of court with a settlement than actually make it to trial. But hey ho, its OcUK Motors, don't let facts get in the way of a good rant. Have fun guys.
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Yes Bernie is innocent that's why he substantially increased his offer to end the trial.
 
~Mike~ said:
Yes Bernie is innocent that's why he substantially increased his offer to end the trial.
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At what point did I say Bernie was innocent?

The prosecutions case to prove his guilt is falling apart. That doesn't mean he's innocent, it just means they can't easily prove guilt.
 
Skeeter said:
At what point did I say Bernie was innocent?

The prosecutions case to prove his guilt is falling apart. That doesn't mean he's innocent, it just means they can't easily prove guilt.
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Which surely begs the question, why not just go through with it, watch the prosecution embarrass themselves and walk away with a not guilty verdict?

Why throw £60 million at it (sure it's small fry to him but no one got rich by throwing money away for no reason, no matter how much) if you're looking likely to win the case?

It just screams 'I'm guilty so i've paid my way out of a bribery case' whether that is really the case or not.

Bizarre IMO.
 
Surely that's the whole point of a settlement, to avoid the possibility of being found guilty? And even if your confident, being dragged through a 4 or 5 month trial dragging up all sorts of possible dirt and bad press is not going to be high on any defendants list.

The defense offered a settlement, the prosecution declined as they thought they had an easy win. Turns out its not that easy for the prosecution so they reopen settlement discussions. The defendant avoids a guilty verdict, the prosecution avoids an innocent verdict, and the "victim" gets a payout.

It doeant matter what it 'screams to you', history will record Bernie as not guilty.

Its not bizarre at all, its the norm. Most cases are settled outside of court with a settlement payment. This ones just been spun as a bribe to get off a bribe, as the media know everyone loves a Bernie bribery story.
 
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I didn't suggest settlements in general are bizarre, just this one, if the case against him is falling apart to the extent you imply.

Makes perfect sense when there's a real chance it could go either way or land you in hot water, but against a prosecution that's falling apart and contradicting itself? Dunno, just doesn't strike me as 'business as usual'.

edit - though on reflection, considering he's worth nearly $5 billion (more than I had in my head for some reason), £60 million is bordering on equivalent to one of us regular proles paying a couple of hundred quid to make a court case go away, which almost everyone would do I suppose.
 
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Yep. Not to mention what else could have come to light through the trial. After all his defense was that he was blackmailed about his dodgy tax payments, so I doubt he wanted that investigated. As we've seen with plenty of people, it doesn't matter if you didn't actually break any tax rules, they will still drag you through the mud.

Lawyers will always try their hardest to avoid a trial.
 
Kenai said:
I didn't suggest settlements in general are bizarre, just this one, if the case against him is falling apart to the extent you imply.

Makes perfect sense when there's a real chance it could go either way or land you in hot water, but against a prosecution that's falling apart and contradicting itself? Dunno, just doesn't strike me as 'business as usual'.
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Their witness has contradicted himself. The prosecutions case was hung on Gribkowsky admitting it was a bribe and it being a slam dunk. That hasn't worked meaning they now have to go away and rebuild their case to prove it was bribery on other evidence. They clearly aren't confident they can, or feel its going to take too long and cost too much, so have instead gone back to the settlement discussion.

Edit: yeah, as you say, the sum is relative. Its a massive figure to us, but anything less would be so insignificant to Bernie it would be meaningless.
 
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Skeeter said:
Their witness has contradicted himself. The prosecutions case was hung on Gribkowsky admitting it was a bribe and it being a slam dunk. That hasn't worked meaning they now have to go away and rebuild their case to prove it was bribery on other evidence. They clearly aren't confident they can, or feel its going to take too long and cost too much, so have instead gone back to the settlement discussion.
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That was talking from Bernie's perspective, obviously the prosecution are going to want to talk settlements if their case has just fallen to pieces :p
 
Shock as lawyers turn to a settlement as soon as it looks like they might have to do some lawyer stuff :p.

I expect the prosecutions eagerness to accept is to avoid Bernies men being given any time to lower their offer.

"What's that, your prime witness turned out to be a dud? Shame. Ah well, our offer is now 50p."
 
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