SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Stepney plea bargain ends spy case

The Ferrari-McLaren 2007 spy story has been concluded in Sassuolo, at the detached seat of the criminal court of Modena.

The court has accepted a plea bargain submitted by the attorneys for Nigel Stepney, who was accused of stealing Ferrari's confidential information and of damaging the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen on the eve of Monaco GP when he was still a Ferrari employee.

Stepney pleaded guilty, although he has always denied the sabotage charge, and was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment and fined 900 Euros, reduced to one year and eight months and 600 Euros, conditionally suspended.

The rule brings to an end the criminal charges over Spygate, with the mattered settled from a civil law standpoint in July 2008, when Ferrari accepted McLaren apologies as well as a compensation for damages which Ferrari then divulged to charity.