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En el marco de la Copa Mitropa, los días 24 y 25 de junio, en Praga, hubo una reunión de la Junta Directiva de la ECU (Unión Europea de Ajedrez). Uno de los puntos del orden del día era determinar las federaciones que van a organizar los próximos torneos de la ECU. La federación alemana, por ejemplo, organizará el Campeonato de Europa Juvenil por Equipos en Bad Blankenburg en 2018.
El asunto más importante, sin embargo, fue cómo afrontar lo ocurrido con la empresa "ECU LLC", registrada en Delaware. Dicha empresa habría llevado a cabo diversos negocios y había emitido facturas, dando a entender que estaba actuando en nombre de la European Chess Union, pero en realidad se trataba de una empresa particular que llevaba el mismo nombre. Dicen que se ha llevado fondos por importe de unos 1,5 millones de euros por esa vía.
Las operaciones se habían descubierto antes de las elcciones presidenciales de la ECU en 2014 y también habían sido deunciadas públicamente por el gran maestro búlgaro Kiril Georgiev y por otros ajedrecistas búlgaros. Como consecuencia, la federación búlgara supendió a dichos jugadores en mitad del Campeonato de Bulgaría.
El presidente de la ECU hasta 2014 fue Silvio Danailov, que luego no fue reelegido y que es presidente de la federación búlgara.
La ECU echa en falta una serie de actas y comprobantes que datan a la etapa de Danailov y exige a la federación búlgara que presente dichos documentos. La junta directiva de la ECU, en la Asamblea General que se disputará en Bakú en septiembre, propondrá la expulsión de la federación búlgara. Independientemente, lo sucedido ha sido denunciado en la Interpol y en la FBI.
Texto: André Schulz (ChessBase)
Traducción Nadja Wittmann (ChessBase)
The ECU Board informed about the legal matters and especially the decisions taken in the ECU General Assembly on 10 October 2015 in Bar and the ECU Board meeting, on 2nd and 3rd March in Lviv Ukraine.
- ECU with a letter from 6 April 2016, based in the ECU Statutes, asked the Bulgarian Chess Federation to provide a number of documents (contracts, invoices) that were allegedly issued by the ECU, but are not available in ECU files and books.
Additionally, the ECU asked from the Bulgarian Chess Federation to provide a list of payments to the ECU for the years 2011-2014. Bulgarian Chess Federation with its answer on 19.04.2016 failed to provide all these documents and the list of payments to ECU.
- Bulgarian Financial Investigation Agency, after the ECU request, in May 2016 officially provided to the ECU three investigation reports connected with the European Championships and two Open Chess tournaments held in Bulgaria from 2011 to 2014.
- The last of these reports dated 16.02.2016 took into consideration the ECU position after the official request for contribution sent by the Bulgarian authorities.
- The reports confirm that hundreds thousands of euros transferred in the name of the European Chess Union to the unknown bank account in Slovenia belong to an offshore company under the name ECU Delaware LLC. All these huge transactions are not reported to the ECU accounts, auditors and General Assemblies and were obviously never delivered by the European Chess Union.
- Until today, the Bulgarian Chess Federation have provided to the Bulgarian Investigation Financial Agency a number of documents as ECU invoices, contracts, and letters, even bank certificates, which are unknown to the ECU. Bulgarian Investigation authorities have not accepted the majority of these documents as authentic.
Based in these reports and the decisions in the ECU GA 2015 in Bar and ECU Board meeting on 2nd and 3rd March in Lviv the ECU Board decided:
1. The investigation reports and the letters dated 06.04.2016 and 19.04.2016 are forwarded to the ECU General Assembly 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan with the proposal of suspension of the Bulgarian Chess Federation membership. Bulgarian Chess Federation has the right for written and oral explanations before any decision.
2. The whole case is already sent to the FIDE General Assembly 2016 Agenda for information and decisions.
Independently of the administration procedures, the ECU will follow closely the investigations running till now in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Interpol & FIDE Ethics Commission, and according to the advice of the ECU legal advisers regarding the financial and moral damage to the ECU, may proceed to a criminal complaint to Swiss authorities against any responsible individual.
The FBI office in the US Embassy in Switzerland has already contacted and informed about the operation of the shadow company “ECU LLC Delaware” within the USA territory. The European Chess Union also testified to Interpol after invitation received in Switzerland.
Moreover, the matter may concern the investigation services in several countries, since there are other European Federations or/and players who were forced to transfer money in “chess” offshores companies with the same address in Delaware.
Additionally, after the decision in GA in Bar, Montenegro and the material available today, the ECU will give a press conference, on a pre-announced date, informing the international press about all findings through the official investigations in Montenegro and Bulgaria. The matter is very serious not only for the chess world but for the whole sports family.
