Le Monde allegations against Bachar Kouatly

[JustinHorton]

Peter Heine Nielsen on Twitter

Summary:

To sum up: 3 French city councils signed contracts with the French chess federation (FFE) for 380 000 euros to have chess courses in schools. But “Le Monde” says the money of those contracts was given to the private enterprise of the FFE president instead of the FFE itself.

Le Monde

Google Translate, since my A-Level was grade D and in 1983. (I have no idea why it twice renders Bachar, which is correct in the original, as Bashar.)

The double hat of the president of the French Chess Federation in question

Town halls negotiated with Bashar Kouatly the setting up of school workshops. But it is his family company that benefits from the contracts. A complaint was filed by a licensee.

Bashar Kouatly is used to having several moves in advance. Logic, for a chess player. All the more so if one has, like him, the title of Grand Master International. Since December 2016, the man has another attribution: he chairs the French Federation of chess (FFE). The municipalities of Agen, Chartres and Villejuif know it well. During the second half of 2018, they signed a contract with him to set up chess initiation workshops planned for the current school year.

But, according to information from the World, none of these public markets has returned money to the federation. They all benefited the family company of Bachar Kouatly, specialized in the publishing of a magazine (Europe Chess) as well as in the animation of educational workshops: about 100,000 euros from Agen, 120,000 euros from Chartres (excluding tax) and 150,000 euros from Villejuif (also excluding tax).

In July 2018, this limited liability company was still called Promotion Games of the Mind (PJE) and posted a turnover of 1.1 million euros. She had Bachar Kouatly as manager.

Since then, she has changed her name, legal form and leader, according to a legal announcement just a month ago. It is the son of the person concerned, Sami Kouatly, who presides over what became a simplified joint-stock company. The company now has the name Ideal, an acronym for the Chess Development Animation Leisure Institute. According to the latest annual accounts that Le Monde has consulted, Bachar Kouatly has twenty-nine shares. His son, the thirtieth.

[Chris Rice]

Malcolm "I've had it translated. Summary in thread is accurate (Peter Heine Nielsen's thread see above). One component: These contracts have concerned some licencees. On March 5, one of two filed a complaint .... with the prosecutor of the Republic for what he considers to be an illegal conflict of interest."

Chess.com "Strong allegations of conflict of interest towards French Chess Federation President and FIDE Vice President Bachar Kouatly, as reported by @lemondefr"

[Roger de Coverly]

These contracts have concerned some licencees.

Isn't "licencees" just French for members or players?

In France their compulsory membership of the FFE requires that players in domestic competitions have to have a "licence" through their club. If they have the restricted type, they are only allowed to play rapidplay.

(edit)

I've been trying to put this in a British or ECF context. The parallel would be local authorities approaching the ECF with money in exchange for chess training. You might expect the ECF to outsource this. What you wouldn't expect is for the contract to be given to an organisation with strong connections to one or more of the ECF directors without there being some form of open tendering. But there's a row of sorts over the ECF Academy. (/edit)