FIVB president demands an end to game of vindictiveness

By Philippe Maspoli, 24 heures

"Sports federations come to Lausanne. We are happy for them to be here with us but they should remember that they are benefitting from the reputation of justice in Switzerland and the canton of Vaud. There is a reciprocal relationship."

In addition to questions of accounting practice it is the transparency of organised sport that is on trial at the criminal court in Lausanne.

So argued laywer Elie Elkaim yesterday on behalf of Mario Goijman on the second day of the Volleygate case. Goijman is the Argentine who by filing a complaint with the police on 20 December 2002 succeeded in getting Ruben Acosta, the president of the powerful International Football Federation (FIVB), the sacked secretary general Jean-Pierre Seppey and a former controller sent to court.

The defendants are primarily charged with forgery by removing a document from the annual report for 2001-2002 before it was presented to the FIVB congress. The document specifically mentioned 8.3 million Swiss francs which Ruben Acosta took in commissions for sponsor contracts.

According to Elie Elkaim it is a clear case of forgery when you remove the page which mentions the money the president took. For the representatives of the 218 national volleyball federation the missing document was the only clear information available to them about the "anarchistic distribution" of commissions which had led to a state of "false accounting", the lawyer said.

"Ruben Acosta took the money on the basis of very ambigious rules and thanks to forgery nobody asked any questions."

"Game of vindictiveness"
Faced with these attacks, Acosta demanded through his lawyer Yves Burnand that "the vindictive games of Mario Goijman should be stopped."

The former president of the Argentine Volleyball Fedeartion had actually been suspended by the FIVB in November 2002 because he had signed sponsorship contract without permission, and he had also received money.

The decision had been confirmed by several other authorities within the sports federation. From that moment on "Mario Goijman wanted to get Ruben Acosta sent to prison."

The Argentine has been a member of the Executive Committe and therefore "he knew the situation and was just as involved as the defendants", Burnand added.

It was exactly on the behalf of the other defendants that Jean-Pierre Seppey wanted to "puncture this case like a ball and send Goijman back to the changing room," his laywer, Philippe Raymond, told the court.

"At no point in time did my client take part in decisionmaking about hiding the document," the lawyer said and demanded that "charges against all defendants are dismissed."

Here he also included the person who removed the sensitive document, namely the controller who had been working for FIVB since 1978 and has admitted to committing a "mistake." It was a "misunderstanding" of the external auditor's clear instructions which happened in the confusion over changes to the procedure for presenting the annual report and the arrival of Jean-Pierre Seppey as secretary general in the beginning of 2001.

"My client did not have a machiavellian desire to hide anything in order to help Mr. Acosta. Is it credible that he made the decision on his own? Absolutely," said Eric Rammel in his capacity as lawyer for the controller.

"This is a complicated case," concluded judge Michel Carrard. He refrained from making a ruling immediately as originally expected. The ruling is now expected on Wednesday next week.

Read previous stories about the Volleygate court case:

FIVB heavyweights point fingers at controller

Former finance secretary feels hoodwinked by Acosta

Volleygate judge will only hear witnesses for the defence