10.08.2016

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov received documents from the United States related to his sanctions case

"I have received from the US the administrative record, filed by the US Treasury, on the basis of which I was included in the sanctions list", Ilyumzhinov told to Interfax on Tuesday 9.

According to him, "this case is based solely on an interview that the World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov has given to one of Western newspapers and on my acquaintance with two officials in Syria."
Here's how the US Treasury letter worded the reason why the head of FIDE was included in the sanctions list:

"Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material or technological support for, and/or acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Syria, Central Bank of Syria, Adib Malayeh and / or Batoul Rida."
The head of FIDE is positive that the wording and reasoning of the letter bewildered not only him but also American lawyers defending his interests.
"This is just the height of incompetence", said the head of the World Chess Federation, stressing that he intends to seek exclusion from the sanctions list and compensation for moral damages.
Let us recall that the US Treasury announced the inclusion of Ilyumzhinov in the Syria sanctions list on November 25, 2015. As Kirsan Ilyumzhinov himself explained later, he knows only one of the two employees of the Syrian bank for association with whom the US Treasury has included him in the Syria sanctions list.
"I have never seen that woman and I even thought she was a man. She is a bank employee and is allegedly linked with me but I have never met her and I do not even know what she looks like,"- said the head of the World Chess Federation.