巧舌如簧 如果我是F1掌門人的律師

Bernie Ecclestone, the 83-year-old supremo of Formula One, this week brought his empire-threatening bribery trial to an end by agreeing to pay $100m to the German court that was hearing the case. That is right: he paid off the state of Bavaria to escape a bribery charge.

一級方程式(F1)老闆、現年83歲的伯尼•埃克爾斯通(Bernie Ecclestone)最近了結了一樁危及其企業帝國的賄賂案，同意向正在審理此案的德國法院支付1億美元。沒錯：他通過向德國巴伐利亞州付款而避免了一項行賄指控。

The legal outcome is scandalous, and is almost matched by the absurdity of Mr Ecclestone’s defence. He claimed he and his family trust paid $44m to Gerhard Gribkowsky, a former executive of the state-backed bank BayernLB to stop him giving information about Mr Ecclestone’s financial affairs to tax authorities. No, that was not the prosecution case; that was the defence.

這一法律結果是可恥的，而埃克爾斯通的辯護理由也很荒謬。他聲稱，他和他的家族信託曾向州立的巴伐利亞銀行(BayernLB)前高管格哈德•格里布科夫斯基(Gerhard Gribkowsky)支付4400萬美元，以阻止他向稅收當局透露埃克爾斯通的財務信息。不，這不是公訴人的陳詞；這是辯方陳詞。

It is standard practice for Mr Ecclestone, who has ruled F1 since the late 1970s, when he persuaded the racing teams to give him control of the broadcasting rights and much else, to behave in a breathtaking manner. “No, he can’t possibly get away with that, can he?” people often ask. Oh, yes he can.

對於埃克爾斯通而言，用一種令人瞠目結舌的方式行事是標準做法，自上世紀70年代末以來，他一直是F1的掌門人，當時他說服各賽車隊讓他控制電視轉播權以及其它很多權利。人們經常會問：“不，這次他不可能逃脫法律懲罰了吧？”哦，是的，他可以逃脫懲罰。

Yet Mr Ecclestone wields complete authority over F1 for one good reason: few can imagine it thriving without him. If he had not stopped the case, he would have needed a forthright defence. Here is what I would have told the judges had I been his lawyer:

然而，有一個很好的理由讓埃克爾斯通全權掌控F1：人們無法想象，如果沒有他，F1是否還會蓬勃發展。如果他沒有了結此案，他原本需要直截了當的辯護。如果我是他的律師，我將這樣告訴法官：

“Mr Ecclestone is, the defence concedes, not the most sympathetic of defendants. He is a self-made billionaire who criss-crosses the world in a private jet with his Formula One contracts, having scrambled his way up from a humble start as a second-hand motorcycle trader. He was literally what the British call a ‘wheeler-dealer’ – a wily entrepreneur.

“辯護人承認，埃克爾斯通先生並非最讓人同情的被告。他是一位白手起家的億萬富翁，他會帶着他的F1合約乘坐私人飛機穿梭於世界各地，他從一個二手摩托車交易商起步，一步步攀升到現在的位置。他確確實實就是英國人所說的‘投機鑽營者’：一位老謀深算的企業家。

“He has not changed over the years. He is one of the world’s best negotiators, able to cajole both rivals and friends into deals that have brought him wealth. If Mr Ecclestone values you, he will reward you with tickets to the paddock at F1 events and a cut of the billions that the sport generates. If he does not like you, watch out.

“多年來，他從未改變。他是世界上最佳談判者之一，不管是競爭對手，還是朋友，他都能取悅他們達成交易，而這些交易給他帶來了財富。如果埃克爾斯通看重你，他將獎勵你F1大獎賽裝備區的門票，還會從賽事帶來的數十億美元收入中分一部分給你。如果他不喜歡你，那你就要小心了。

“The defence also admits that it is hard to imagine Mr Ecclestone as the director of a public company, having to obey listings rules and to act in an open and transparent way towards shareholders. This, after all, is the man whom a British judge described earlier this year as ‘impossible to regard’ as a ‘reliable or truthful witness’ in court.

“辯護人還承認，人們很難把埃克爾斯通設想爲一家公開上市公司的董事：必須遵從上市規定，並以公開和透明的方式對待股東。畢竟，今年早些時候，一名英國法官曾把他形容爲在法庭上‘不可能被視爲’一個‘可靠且講老實話的證人’的人。

“Mr Ecclestone gave evidence to the trial in London that he misled the F1 board about having paid millions to Mr Gribkowsky because ‘I didn’t need to tell them . . . [it] wasn’t the slightest concern of theirs’. I will leave it to the court to decide whether a public company director could behave like that.

“埃克爾斯通曾在倫敦向庭審提供證據稱，他在向格里布科夫斯基支付鉅款一事上誤導了F1董事會，因爲‘我不需要告訴他們……（這）一點不關他們的事’。對於一家公開上市公司的董事能否如此行事，我將讓法庭來決定。

“But Formula One Management, Mr Ecclestone’s licensing company, is not a public company and has not tried to become one. It is quite the reverse – a private enterprise run by a sole trader. Mr Ecclestone is its master and commander, and he has always tried to escape oversight or any restriction on his freedom of financial manoeuvre.

“但埃克爾斯通的授權公司一級方程式管理公司(Formula One Management)並非一家公開上市公司，也無意上市。恰恰相反，它是一家由個體戶經營的私有企業。埃克爾斯通是該公司的老闆和指揮者，他一直努力逃避監督或任何對其財務操縱自由的限制。

“He did not regard the payment to Mr Gribkowsky as a bribe but as a bargain, one of many thousands he has struck over the years to keep the F1 show on the road. He has constantly reached agreements with those presenting opportunities and challenges, from powerful teams such as Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes to advertisers and broadcasters. In his mind, this was no different.

“他沒有將付給格里布科夫斯基的錢視爲賄賂，而是將其視爲一種交易，就像多年來他爲了讓F1賽事成功舉辦所達成的數千筆交易一樣。他一直在與那些帶來機會和挑戰的人達成交易，從法拉利(Ferrari)和邁凱輪(McLaren Mercedes)等強大賽車隊到廣告商和電視公司。在他看來，這筆交易沒有什麼不同。

“He is wealthy, but he is only rich because he has made Formula One prosper. Everything he has done for several decades has been calculated to increase the value of the business as a whole, in which he still holds a significant stake. It looks easy with hindsight but he created something from nothing when nobody else possessed the vision or skill.

“他是富有的，但他致富只是因爲他讓F1繁榮了起來。幾十年來他所做的一切都是經過盤算的，目的是提升F1的整體價值，他仍持有其中很大的權益。事後看來，這一切都很容易，但在其他人沒有眼光或能力的時候，他從無到有締造了一個王國。

“Not only did he understand from the early days that F1 could be transformed from a scrappy sport run by eccentric enthusiasts with a varying number of Grand Prix races each year into a global media business; he was also the only one capable of making it happen.

“他從早年就知道，F1能夠從一種由古怪的愛好者運作的混亂的運動（每年舉行不同數量的賽車大獎賽），轉變爲一項全球媒體業務；不僅如此，他還是唯一有能力使其成爲現實的人。

“It required him to unify the rival F1 teams, including the powerful ones that could go their own way, make them accept discipline, and shift control from the sports circuits that paid teams to attend races to the teams themselves. He did this by selling broadcasting rights, which brought in the revenues to support the weaker teams and make the races more exciting.

“這需要他團結相互競爭的F1車隊（包括一些可能自行其是的強隊）、讓他們遵守紀律並將控制權從付錢請車隊比賽的賽車場轉移到車隊自己。他通過出售轉播權做到了這點，這帶來了收入，可以用來支持實力較弱的車隊，讓比賽變得更加激動人心。

“My client is an entrepreneur of a highly unusual kind: he did not only found one company; he cultivated an industry of racing drivers, teams, venues, broadcasters and advertisers that perform as an entity. At any moment, one of these might feel badly treated and threaten to break away from the others, undermining the industry as a whole.

“我的客戶是一位極其不同尋常的企業家：他不僅創建了一家公司；他還培育了一個由賽車手、車隊、賽場、電視公司以及廣告商組成的行業，它們作爲一個實體開展經營。在任何時候，都可能有某個組成部分覺得自己受到不公平對待，威脅要退出，從而破壞整個行業。”

“F1 faces repeated challenges of this kind, yet Mr Ecclestone has held it together. He has done so not only by exerting the personal authority that comes from having himself been a racing driver, manager and owner of an F1 team, but also by striking a series of astute backroom deals. By negotiating privately, he makes it harder for others to demand similar financial terms.

“F1多次面臨這種挑戰，然而，埃克爾斯通都順利化解了挑戰。化解的方法不僅包括利用他曾經擔任賽車手、F1車隊經理和所有者而樹立的個人權威，還包括達成一系列精明的幕後交易。通過私下談判，他讓別人更難要求類似的財務條件。

“Some people talk of removing Mr Ecclestone from F1 and managing it more conventionally. They regard him as an embarrassment, a relic of a freewheeling corporate governance past. But, like its cars, F1 is a highly complex entity with many moving parts that could easily fall apart. Only one man has demonstrated the ability to prevent that.

“一些人談到讓埃克爾斯通離開F1以及採取更傳統的管理方式。他們認爲他造成難堪，是過去那種隨心所欲的公司治理的殘餘。但就像F1賽車一樣，F1是一個極其複雜的實體，有很多運動部件，很容易散架。只有一個人展示出了阻止這種情況發生的能力。

“The British have another word for an entrepreneurial risk-taker who pushes the boundaries of the legal and proper: a chancer. Mr Ecclestone is a chancer but he has earned a final chance.”

“英國人對於挑戰法律和恰當行爲底線的冒險企業家有另外一個稱呼：投機分子。埃克爾斯通是一個投機分子，但他贏得了最後的機會。”