The European Chess Union is obliged in order to protect its members, the entire chess family and the association itself to proceed with the present public announcement. By the decisions of the ECU General Assembly in Tromso (August 2014) and Batumi (October 2014), the ECU Board was asked to investigate a number of issues concerning the organization of the European Youth Chess Championship held in Buvda, Montenegro, in 2013.
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.
In view of the above and other unusual transactions reported to ECU and are under investigation, it has been necessary to take the following actions:
- ECU provided the Montenegro Chess Federation with the relevant documents available in the association’s files thus demonstrating its willingness for transparency and cooperation with National Federations and ascertained the Federation that the mentioned company (“European Chess Union LLC”) and its bank account in Slovenia have no connection whatsoever with ECU.
- ECU is taking all necessary legal actions to inform the competent authorities in Canton of Zug, Switzerland about potentially criminal activity affecting ECU.
- ECU informs by this announcement all National Federations and any other entities or individuals that the only valid bank account of ECU is the one maintained in Credit Suisse Bank in Switzerland, as per the information available on ECU’s website (https://www.europechess.org/regulations/ecu-bank-account/).
- ECU invites any National Federations and/or other entities or individuals who have received any email, instruction, or invoice to transfer money related to the activities of ECU to bank accounts other than the one mentioned above (in Credit Suisse Bank, Switzerland) to immediately report it to ECU as well as to their national competent police authorities for investigation of potentially criminal activity.