The International Chess Federation (FIDE) lost access to the financial system: over the weekend, Swiss UBS closed its account, and no other bank was willing to take it for customer service. The reason is the head of FIDE, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has been on the US sanctions list since 2015 for supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime, or, as formulated in the documents of the US Treasury Department, for “material assistance and activities in the interests of or on behalf of the Syrian government.”
UBS warned FIDE in February that it would close its account on April 30th. Last week, the organization’s treasurer, Adrian Siegel, wrote to the presidents and treasurers of 189 national chess federations not to send money to her while they look for a new bank, the Financial Times reported. However, it was not possible to find him, the newspaper writes. On Friday, FIDE executive director Nigel Freeman sent a letter to Ilyumzhinov, which the FT got acquainted with. It says that over the past two weeks, FIDE, which is headquartered in Lausanne, has negotiated with four other Swiss banks, but none of them agreed to work with it while Ilyumzhinov remains in the presidency.
Freeman also listed 18 other banks in Lausanne and Geneva that refused to meet with FIDE representatives, and negotiations with Romanian Alfa-Bank and the National Bank of Georgia ended in nothing. Freeman writes to Ilyumzhinov: “I don’t think you are seriously suggesting [обратиться в] Bank of the United States, as long as you, as President of FIDE, are on the US sanctions list. “
Freeman declined to comment on the FT situation. The newspaper also notes that UBS did not go to meet FIDE, which asked to extend its work until October, when new elections are to be held in Batumi (the World Chess Olympiad will be held there at the same time).
The tense situation around the presidency of FIDE has been persisting for over a year. In March 2017, FIDE issued a statement that Ilyumzhinov was leaving. But he immediately denied this, calling the announcement of his resignation a provocation and an unsuccessful attempt to remove him. The letter, signed by Freeman, explained the appearance of the statement as follows: “At the meeting of the Presidential Council in Athens, you threatened to resign several times and at the end of the meeting repeated” I am leaving “three times before leaving the premises.”
In early April 2018, the FIDE Presidential Council publicly called on Ilyumzhinov to resign early in order to thereby resolve the organization’s financial problems. 14 members of the council voted “for”, one – “against”.
However, Ilyumzhinov, who has headed FIDE since 1995, has argued that everything that is happening is a US conspiracy against him and that he does not consider the accusations against him fair. In 2016, he even filed a $ 50 billion lawsuit against the US Treasury, demanding an apology for the unjustified sanctions.
Ilyumzhinov also promised to re-run for election in October, although in October 2017 the FIDE executive committee voted against his nomination during a meeting of the federation congress. His deputy, Georgios Makropoulos, also announced his participation in the elections.
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