The scandal with the European Youth Chess Championship in 2013 that forced Vladimir Sakotic to resign from his position of MCF President might have much deeper implications than the breaking of the law concluded by the local authorities. The current ECU Board was asked to investigate a number of issues concerning the organization of the EYCC and in the process interesting details are coming up.
The ECU press release states:
During the course of this investigation, Montenegro Chess Federation provided the ECU Board and ECU General Assembly with important documents (including a bank transfer receipt, and an invoice printed on ECU letterhead and bearing the ECU stamp) according to which the deposit fee payable by the Montenegro Chess Federation to ECU appears to have been directed to be paid and to have been paid to a bank account in Slovenia belonging to “European Union LLC”, a Delaware Limited-Liability Company (LLC) that was filed on May 4, 2011 (http://www.bizapedia.com/de/EUROPEAN-CHESS-UNION-LLC.html). This entity, namely “European Chess Union LLC”, and the respective bank account in Slovenia do not have any connection whatsoever with ECU.
Furthermore, ECU issued specific warnings to national federations and organizers that “the mentioned company (“European Chess Union LLC”) and its bank account in Slovenia have no connection whatsoever with ECU”.
It is interesting to note that the company is 4 years old. Created in May 2011, a few months after Silvio Danailov became ECU President, the European Chess Union LLC operated long before the troubling EYCC events. What actually has happened in ECU during that period may become known from upcoming legal actions, as the press release informs that “ECU is taking all necessary legal actions to inform the competent authorities in Canton of Zug, Switzerland about potentially criminal activity affecting ECU.”
No one from the previous management of ECU was found for comment.
