Former F1 banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, is expected to be sent to jail for corruption and abuse of trust, and in an effort to have his sentenced reduced, he's going down swinging.

The former BayernLB risk officer has admitted to receiving $44 million of bribe money from F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone. The DAPD news agency quoted Gribkowsky admitting to the Munich state court that the bribery charges were "essentially true." On top of that, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport also quoted the former banker saying that Ecclestone offered him "a huge pile of money." Apparently, that 'huge pile of money' is around $44 million.

For his part, Ecclestone has denied bribing Gribkowsky, although he did admit to paying off Gribkowksy after the latter threatened to snitch to the UK tax authorities to do a tax inquiry on the 81-year old Formula 1->ke190 boss.

All this drama in the circus that is Formula 1 isn't entirely new to a lot of folks. But this raises concerns on just how political the sport can be. If the sport's most powerful man can admit to paying off somebody just to keep the UK tax authorities out of his nose without even the slightest inquiry, you know something's wrong with that picture.

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