Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes Grand Prix (nee Brawn) has reportedly discovered details of a fraud in relationship to a sponsorship that had been planned for its new Formula 1 team. According to the respected financial journal Handelsblatt, Brawn GP met with a Henkel employee as long ago as Monaco in May. They began discussing a deal being worth $43m a year. By the end of July a three-year deal worth $130m had been agreed. It was due to begin in March 2010.

According to the newspaper the scam was discovered only after Brawn and Mercedes did their deal. Brawn informed Mercedes boss Dieter Zetsche that there was a Henkel deal in place and he spoke directly to Henkel’s chief executive Kasper Rorsted, who said that the company had no interest in Formula 1 and denied any such agreement. The result of this was an investigation that revealed that the head of sponsorship and two accomplices were allegedly creating fake paperwork using Henkel stationery to get loans valued at $65m. They intended to use this money to pay for the sponsorship, but around $16m of that money is reported to be missing.

It is not clear how they intended to convince Henkel that it should agree to a sponsorship it was not funding. Henkel is now saying that it has no intention of honouring the deal signed by its employee (nor former employee) as he did not have the right to agree such a deal.

Daimler wants the cash.