After the ECU General Assembly in Baku, Azerbaijan, all the investigation’s reports and materials from Bulgaria, Montenegro and FIDE Ethics Commission, as well related with the case press items & letters from the above countries, including Serbia, were sent to the major legal office in Zug, Switzerland, for further evaluation.
Additionally were forwarded to Switzerland a number of threatening emails which were sent to ECU President and Board members blackmailing them to stop any investigation about specific individuals. The threatening emails were followed, systematically, with release of defaming material in specific sources as a product of the criminal offence of blackmail.
As the result of the material evaluation and as the commitment to the ECU members to make any effort to enlighten the case, the ECU Board gave the final approval for filing a criminal complaint in Zug, Switzerland for various criminal offences related to the operation of the shadow company ECU LLC Delaware and fraud against the organization.
Due to the complexity of the case and the number of countries involved, as well as depending on the decision of the Swiss authorities regarding the jurisdiction of the case, it may be decided that the legal actions will be continued in other countries as well.
Background
The case is mostly relating to the actions of former ECU officials, Silvio Danailov and Vladimir Sakotic, who are already suspended by the FIDE Ethics Commission for 18 months and 3 years, respectively.
The report of Bulgarian Ministry of Finance – Agency for State Financial Inspection proved the connection of BCF leadership and Vladimir Sakotic to the ghost company ECU LLC Delaware.
Despite the ban by the FIDE Ethics Commission, Vladimir Sakotic took over the management of Belgrade Chess Union through his proxies Ivan Marinkovic, Dejan Nestorovic and Branko Tadic, and then joined forces with old ally Miroslav Kopanja to take over the Serbian Chess Federation by breaking the Sports Law and federation Statutes.
Witnesses from the European Youth Rapid & Blitz Championship, that was held in Novi Sad in December, confirmed that Vladimir Sakotic was running the event in the stead of the “official” tournament coordinator Branko Tadic.