Three team principals including Eddie Jordan and Alain Prost were paid personally in order to ensure the signing of the key commercial agreement that binds Formula One together, the high court heard on Thursday.

Philip Marshall QC, acting for the German media company Constantin Medien in its damages suit against Bernie Ecclestone and three other defendants, said that in 2001 Ecclestone's family trust, Bambino, had made the payments to smooth the signing of the Concorde Agreement that dictates how revenues are split between the teams, the FIA and the Formula One administration.

The prosecution claimed Vulper Holdings, a subsidiary of Bambino, had made the $10m (£6.2m) payments via banker's draft to the four-times world champion and former team owner Prost, to Jordan and to the late Arrows team principal Tom Walkinshaw during negotiations over the 1998 Concorde Agreement.

Ecclestone, who claims to have no control over his family trust, said he had no knowledge of the payments, did not know what happened to the money and the Formula One chief executive suggested that it may then have been paid into the company accounts of the teams concerned.

"Well, the right person to speak to is the person that was dealing with this, because I don't know whatever it is and didn't have anything to do with it," said Ecclestone, during his second day of giving evidence in the case. "I've not the slightest idea. However, I know these teams had $10m each."

Marshall took Ecclestone through evidence of the bank transfers and cheques that were issued. It was known at the time that the teams received a payment for signing the agreement, but not that they were made to the personal accounts of the principals.

The payments were also discussed by Luc Argand, a Swiss lawyer who was also a trustee for Bambino, in evidence to a trial in Germany in 2011 that resulted in the banker Gerhard Gribkowsky being sentenced to eight and half years in prison.

They came to light as Marshall described how Argand considered such payments to be normal, because under Swiss law they are not illegal unless made to a public official.

Marshall asked Ecclestone: "Did you regard the payment of a bribe to someone who is not a public official as something that is acceptable?"

The 83-year-old, who is alleged to have entered into a "corrupt agreement" with Gribkowsky to ensure that Formula One was sold to a buyer favourable to him in 2006, replied: "I'll have to think about that. I wish I'd thought about it before actually."

Ecclestone has been accused of entering into a "corrupt agreement" with Gribkowsky to facilitate the sale of the Formula 1 Group to a buyer "chosen" by him.

Gribkowsky, a former BayernLB banker, has been imprisoned in Germany for accepting the cash as part of a $44m (£27m) alleged bribe. The German court is still deciding whether Ecclestone will stand trial on charges of bribery and incitement to breach of trust.

The former F1 shareholder Constantin Medien AG is suing Ecclestone and other defendants including Gribkowsky for up to $144m, claiming F1 was undervalued at the time BayernLB sold its stake in 2006.

Ecclestone is accused of making a "corrupt bargain" with Gribkowsky, who was allegedly paid the $44m after ensuring the bank's 47% stake was sold in 2005 to a buyer of Ecclestone's choosing, the investment group CVC Capital Partners.

The Formula One supremo has claimed he was being "shaken down" by Gribkowsky, who he alleged had intimated that he would go to the tax authorities with untrue allegations regarding his family trust that could land him with a large bill.

Lawyers representing Ecclestone have outlined their case to the judge in written arguments and say the claim "lacks any merit" and is "an artificial, manufactured complaint".

The case continues.