In another long-expected ruling that brings back memories of old Adidas times, three former executives of ISL, the Swiss sports rights company set up by the late Horst Dassler that went bust in 2001, were convicted on relatively minor charges by a court in Zug, Switzerland, while three other former ISL managers were cleared.
The prosecution had requested jail sentences of up to four and a half years against the executives, as part of the investigation into the allegedly fraudulent bankruptcy of ISL. Jean-Marie Weber, former chairman of ISL, was handed a suspended fine of 84,000 Swiss francs (€51,558-$80,987) for embezzlement, after a sum of 90,000 CHF (€55,000-$87,000) was found in his account. Hans-Jürg Schmid and Hans-Peter Weber were found guilty of obtaining documents under false pretenses and sentenced to fines of 30,000 CHF (€18,410-$28,920) and 12,000 CHF (€7,365-$11,570), respectively, but all three executives were found not guilty of much heavier charges of fraud and were awarded compensation.
The three other ISL executives who faced charges in the case, Daniel Beauvois, Christoph Malms and Heinz Schurtenberger, were cleared and also awarded compensation. At the same time, the court ordered FIFA, football’s governing body, to pay 117,000 CHF (€71,800-$112,000) in costs for the trial, which was launched through a complaint by FIFA.
As part of the hearings, some of the ISL executives and lawyers spoke openly of the corruption that was instituted at ISL, with large payments going to sports officials to secure contracts. Malms, former brother-in-law of Horst Dassler, admitted that the company would not have existed had it not made such payments. Prosecution documents described how tISL paid bribes of 138 million CHF (€84.7m-$133m) in the decade up until 1999. However, the issue was only addressed as background, because bribes were not illegal in Switzerland at the time. Weber’s lawyer is likely to appeal.
