BANSKA BYSTRICA, January 17, (WEBNOVINY) — The appellate senate of the Banska Bystrica Regional Court has accepted the appeal of the Slovak Deaflympic Committee chief Jaromir Ruda and Kosice-based notary Stanislav Furda both of whom the first instance court sentenced to thirteen and fourteen years on charges of particularly serious crime of defrauding 1.6-million euros that were designated for the 2011 Winter Deaflympics. The Winter Deaflympics were planned to be held in Slovakia in the High Tatras in February 2011 and were only canceled days before their start as the organizing team’s work showed to be a total failure.
The Regional Court returned the case to the District Court to complete the evidence. According to the court of appeals, the first-instance court should examine documents submitted by the notary and will also have to repeatedly hear testimonies of representatives of Bratislava-based company Transkontakt, which sponsored Ruda’s 2011 Winter Deaflympics project with a loan.
In April 2008, Furda received a deposit of 52 million Slovak crowns which were to present solvency of Ruda and his Slovak Deaflympic Committee. However, after agreement with Ruda, Furda transferred 48.5 million crowns to several bank accounts and also withdrew cash. On the day the loan should have been returned, the owner of the money received back only 3.5 million crowns which meant that the notary did not obey terms of the deposit.
Upon being asked to return the loan, Ruda told the lenders that he has certain problems and used the funds also for his own protection and lent some of them to his friend. Ruda committed himself to returning the money under oath which, so far, did not happen and the company sues Ruda in order to force him to return the loan.
Both men are also accused in other cases. The Special Prosecution Office accused Ruda of fraud in obtaining funds for the unsuccessful 2011 Winter Deaflympics. Furda was accused of defrauding almost a million euros which he took into deposit from Stavoterm Michalovce and Termostav-Mraz Kosice. The funds were also intended for the Deaflympics.
SITA