FIVB heavyweights point fingers at controller
09.03.2006
By Philippe Maspoli, 24 heures
"I have never given any orders to anyone about the accounts from 2000. I did not look after that. I was neither competent nor responsible for that exercise," claimed Jean-Pierre Seppey, 46, who became secretary general of FIVB in January 2001.
And Mexican president, Ruben Acosta, 72, did he know any more? Oh no. He said:
"I am not a bookkeeper . It is not my job to approve accounts. I have never given any orders to hide anything. I trusted Mr. Seppey and our accountant."
his little exercise in passing the buck opened yesterday's session in the criminal court in Lausanne in Switzerland.
Together with a former FIVB controller, the two top leaders are charged with cutting short the presentation of the annual report for 2000-2001 to the 218 national federations gathered for the FIVB congress in 2002.
A very sensitive dcoument had been removed from the accounts. The document detailed how Ruben Acosta received 8.3 million Swiss francs in commission for sponsor contracts - an amount that is considerably higher than normal.
The document was indispensable. According to the testimony of a fiduciary expert, commissions were distributed in the accounts "in a manner that was not always coherent" and therefore difficult to detect for the uninitiated.
Hence the charges of forgery and withholding information which could give the defendants up to six months in prison if they are found guilty. That is the maximum sentence the criminal court and its sole judge, Michel Carrard, can hand down.
A subordinate is made a scapegoat
If the top leaders are not responsible, the court must turn to the more anonymous controller. He was hired in 1978 without any formalities and on a temporary basis to help out in the FIVB - a sports federation where the annual budget at the time did not exceed 600.000 Swiss francs. Today the annual budget stands at 60 million Swiss francs.
Towards the end of 2000, the controller was due to leave his post. Jean-Pierre Seppey wanted to change the presentation of the annual report in order to improve transparency and therefore the accountant felt that the dcoument about the 8.3 million Swiss francs was unnecessary.
"No one ever questioned my judgement on this," he said.
So an subordinate employee was made a scapegoat. The employee - a German speaking Swiss - had allegedly misunderstood certain instructions, in particular a letter from the external accountant which explained the importance of the document in question.
However, this theory was challenged by several testimonies.
One secretary confirmed that "Mr. Seppey was present" when the decision was made to change the presentation. And the fiduciary expert whose engagement with the FIVB was terminated a short while ago stressed that "the controller only did what he was told. No decision was made without the approval of Mr. Acosta."
Yesterday's session was focused on accounting methods and ways of presenting annual reports.
But was the payment of the 8.3 million Swiss francs unlawful? That was not addressed at all, and the defence as well as the president carefully monitored that the case stayed within narrow parameters: The charges of bad governance had been dismissed already before the court case began.
This situation was a matter of great frustration to Mario Goijman, the former president of the former Argentine Volleyball Federation who got the case rolling when he reported the matter to the police in December 2002.
"The person who is ultimately responsible is Mr. Acosta and he can not pass on accusations which truly belong to him. I can not accept that the FIVB becomes an example of corruption."
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