Lest mal durch. Sehr verworren, das Ganze!
Dear friends,
on 08 April 2013, Mr Sharara has expressed his opinion as to different items of the ETTU
Memorandum of 02 April 2013. Mr Sharara also has responded to a few, but far from all, of the
questions ETTU had put forward.
First of all it has to be underlined, that there was and there is no intention of ETTU to " defame ITTF ",
as has been claimed by Mr Sharara.
By diffusing its Memorandum of 02 April 2013, ETTU just wanted to demonstrate, that during the
past decade, the ITTF President has personally been involved in numerous irregularities and conflicts
of interest, whereof a lot indisputably constitute a severe violation of the Olympic and ITTF moral and
ethical principles and rules.
Some of Mr Sharara's involvements in commercial transactions concerning either ITTF, or TMS, or
both, even are of such a severity degree that one may seriously be in doubt about their legality with
regard to applicable civil and penal laws of Canada, where ITTF-Canada and TMS are registered as
national corporations.
ETTU can thus not be blamed or accused to " generate a negative effect on the image of ITTF ", as has
been claimed by Mr Sharara, but it is on the contrary ETTU's strong intention to prevent the image
and the credibility of ITTF being subject to disrepute and damage, what may and will however
happen in case of inappropriate, intransparent or illegal behavior of its President.
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European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l.
The President
ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 2 of 7
(1) The conflict of interest of Mr Sharara due to his involvement in the TMS business
Mr Sharara has lenghty explained the interest for ITTF of having created TMS, the main reason for
that having apparently been – according to Mr Sharara - the fact, that " all the income received through
TMS is tax-free ".
Historically and up to 2005, TMS, ITTF Lausanne and ITTF Canada have, without any major problems,
been integrated entities, and the TMS end of year financial situation has all the years over clearly and
univocally been shown in the annual ITTF Financial Statements.
The questions may thus be raised, (1) if Mr Sharara has decided himself to juridically separate ITTF
and TMS, and (2) why Mr Sharara has initiated and arranged this separation in 2005?
The answer to these questions seems quite simple: Mr Sharara himself had a great (personal) interest
from having split ITTF and TMS in two juridically separated entities. With separated and nonconsolidated
ITTF and TMS finances, Mr Sharara, through his simultaneous President-ship in ITTF and
Directorship in TMS, can now, and since 2005:
a) totally control both entities, ITTF and TMS, but reporting and being accountable to the ITTF
Executive Committee (EC) and to the ITTF Congress, i.e. to the National Table Tennis Federations
( NTTFs ) for the ITTF finances and activities only; the TMS finances thus 'escape' from any control;
b) spend significant TMS funds without any control, as he pleases and as he decides himself,
including donations (to whom ??), knowing that such donations have even be made to entities
without any link to table tennis or to the table tennis community.
Regardless of all this, ETTU has nonetheless not and never contested the creation nor the existence
of TMS.
ETTU just has pointed out, on one hand, the totally missing transparency as to the TMS finances and
the relation between TMS and ITTF and, on the other hand, (1) the strong conflict of interests
incurred by Mr Sharara being simultaneously the President of ITTF and the Director of TMS, with
regard to the various IOC policies ( Code of ethics, principals of good governance, etc. ), as well as (2)
the evident clash of Mr Sharara's behavior with the Canadian law and the ITTF regulations.
Mr Sharara's statement, that " The fact that I (i.e. Mr Sharara) am a director of TMS and at the same time
the president of the ITTF is perfectly legal and does not contravene any rules or laws ", is therefore
leaving ETTU, as well as the international table tennis community, entirely perplex, with a total lack
of understanding and with the strong feeling of being considered by Mr Sharara as ignoramuses.
It looks of course quite legitimate to ask to which one of both entities (ITTF or TMS) Mr Sharara is
giving or will allocate his preference, when e.g. selling ITTF's commercial rights, as ITTF President, on
one side, and when acquiring these commercial rights, as TMS Director, on the other side ?
In view of the Canadian Civil and Penal Codes, ETTU was and remains in fact convinced, that the
obvious amalgamation by Mr Sharara of different functions, including also personal interests, clashes
- apart the Olympic Charter and the ITTF rules - with the civil as well as with the penal laws of Canada
in such a way to make an IOC intervention, as well as an immediate suspension of Mr Sharara as the
present ITTF President, strongly recommended, not to say indispensable.
ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 3 of 7
In his note of 08 April 2013, Mr Sharara has furthermore stated, that:
(a) " the contract between ITTF and TMS is public ";
(b) " after his resignation from TMS Directorship in 2006 he has returned as a TMS Director a few years
later, when Anders Thunström moved back to Sweden ".
Concerning both these statements, Mr Sharara is evidently not telling the truth:
(a) Up to 08 April 2013, the contract between ITTF and TMS was not public, and had even not been
shown to the EC members, neither at the EC Meeting 2008 in Madrid, nor later, even not upon
specific request. It was only now, when having been put under pressure through the ETTU
Memorandum, that Mr Sharara has made the ITTF-TMS contract public.
(b) The TMS Directors Form having been recorded in the Canada Corporations Register for the year
2010 shows Mr Sharara as TMS Director, together with Mr Thunström and Mr Veronese; thus Mr
Sharara has reintegrated the position of TMS Director already before Mr Thunström had left this
position. The question is: WHY did Mr Sharara do so, and why is he lying in this context ?
During a recent meeting with ETTU at Frankfurt airport, Mr Sharara, upon the relating question
of ETTU, had unequivocally confirmed NOT being today a TMS Director anymore, arguing the
data in the Canadian Corporations Register (as shown by ETTU) not having been up-dated !!
It moreover appears from the annexed document, that Mr. Sharara also has denied being a TMS
Director at the following hyperlink:
http://ooakforum.com.
To be mentioned, that very recently, i.e. on 19 April 2013, TMS has filed its Directors for 2013 with
the Canadian Corporations Register, and "surprisingly" Mr Sharara has no more been registered as a
TMS Director, the TMS registered Directors being now Mr Veronese and … Mr Thunström !! (??).
Mr Sharara has moreover stated, that " Due to my (i.e. Mr Sharara's) involvement with TMS, I ensure
that any surplus generated by TMS at the end of the year from all sources of income and not only from
ITTF events, is transferred to the ITTF.".
It's of course not sufficient to have Mr Sharara " ensuring, that … ", but it is Mr Sharara's moral and
legal obligation to provide documentary evidence of what he is stating. Only the submission of the
audited TMS Financial Statements to the ITTF General Meeting will create the required and necessary
transparency and give the NTTFs the guarantee, that the net funds generated through the ITTF events
( and belonging to ITTF and its members, the NTTFs, and not to Mr Sharara nor to TMS ) are really,
completely and correctly transferred to the ITTF accounts.
Although many NTTFs and EC members have asked Mr Sharara for years to make the audited TMS
Financial Statements public, Mr Sharara has all the years over refused to do so. And even nowadays,
Mr Sharara is not ready to ensure transparency, he is just unilaterally communicating some figures
apparently extracted from the TMS financial accounts for the year 2012.
Although the audited Financial Statements of TMS are still missing today, the figures provided
recently by Mr Sharara raise however one comment and one very serious concern:
ETTU has noted with great satisfaction, that Mr Sharara has confirmed all those data, that ETTU has
put forward in its Memorandum concerning Mr Sharara's Directorship inside TMS and the financial
figures of TMS (as far as known).
ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 4 of 7
Mr Sharara has stated, that the total operating cost of TMS in 2012 has been US$ 1.893.681, whereat
this amount turns out to be - according to Mr Sharara himself - the salaries of the TMS employees,
the administration, travel and insurance costs, commissions to agents, donations (??) and charity (??).
With regard to the fact, that TMS is employing – as far as known – two paid Directors ( Mr Thunström
and Mr Veronese ), and that TMS is furthermore paying - according to Mr Sharara himself - 50 % of
the salary of a common ITTF/TMS secretary in Ottawa (Mrs LEBLANC ?) and 50 % of the salary of the
ITTF Marketing Director in Singapore, the TMS operational costs of CAD 1.893.681 for one year
appear as tremendously high.
For comparison: the total annual cost for the whole staff working for ETTU ( General Secretary,
Assistant Secretary, Marketing Manager, Marketing assistant, Media Manager, Development
Manager and Competition Manager ) comes up to around 300.000 EUR (i.e. 390.000 US$), including
all office costs and all travel expenses for all these seven persons !!. Just to mention that the overall
yearly budget of ETTU is around 950.000 US$ only.
Thus it has to be concluded, that there is not only a severe conflict of interests as to Mr Sharara's
double function as TMS Director and ITTF President, but there are also, as to TMS, tremendously
and abnormally high annual operational costs.
It therefore appears and remains indispensable, that the audited TMS Financial Statements since
2005 must be put forward and made public., in order to allow to check if, respectively to
demonstrate that, the net income of TMS through the commercial rights relating to the table tennis
events has completely and correctly been transferred to ITTF.
As to his position inside and his activities for TMS, Mr Sharara apparently has forgotten to respond, in
his note of 08 April 2013, to the following (important) questions, that ETTU had phrased in its
Memorandum:
(1) Does Mr Sharara be, or have been in the past, registered as an employee of TMS ?
(2) Does Mr Sharara get paid, or has he been paid in the past, by TMS a salary or honorarium,
either monthly or yearly, either as an employee or as a Director or in any other function ?
(3) If the answer to question (2) is 'YES', what is the amount of the monthly/yearly
salary/honorarium paid or having been paid by TMS to Mr Sharara since 2005 ?
Provided the proactive cooperation of Mr. Sharara, it would be quite easy and straight forward to
obtain all necessary documentation and information, so that (1) most possibly an answer could be
given to most of the questions raised here before and (2) most of the suspicions and rumors
persisting in Mr Sharara's disfavor could eventually be dispelled.
Many documents have been requested from Mr Sharara, but have not been provided.
The question arising from all this thus reads as follows:
WHY DID Mr SHARARA NOT RESPOND TO QUESTION (2)
AND WHY DOES HE HIDE THE AUDITED TMS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ??
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ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 5 of 7
(2) The conflict of interest of Mr Sharara due to the involvement of himself and his wife in the
transactions related to the ITTF owned real estate properties in Ottawa and Hull
After ETTU had disclosed the whole details about the real estate transactions ITTF has concluded in
Canada between 2001 and 2005, Mr Sharara quite surprisingly is now (in 2013) disclosing himself a
lot of information he was hiding up to there to the members of the EC as well as to the ITTF General
Meeting, i.e. the National Table Tennis Federations.
In particular, Mr Sharara has only now informed the EC and the NTTFs, that the company VERSADEX
( having been exclusively responsible for the acquisition in 2005 and the sale in later years of the ITTF
real estate properties in Ottawa ) is owned and managed by his wife, who is a Director of Versadex,
knowing, that since January 2007 Mr Sharara has himself become a Director of Versadex as well.
ETTU has – once again - noted with great satisfaction, that Mr Sharara has confirmed all those data,
that ETTU had provided in its Memorandum as to the ITTF real estate properties in Canada.
But Mr Sharara once more forgot to respond to the following questions ETTU had put forward:
(1) Did Mr Sharara conclude the acquisition of the Riverside building ( registered in Canada on
05 Nov 2001 ) before he had got the relating authorization from the EC ( on 07 Nov 2001 ) ?
(2) Did Mr Sharara lie to the EC when announcing (on 10 Jan 2002) that the Riverside building had
been acquired on 15 Nov 2001, although this had happened on 05 Nov 2001 already ?
(3) Who has really taken benefit from the two mortgages (of a total value of CAD 1.078.293) that
had been charged in 2004 on the Riverside building and the land in the Hull ? Although Mr
Sharara wrote, that this mortgages had been raised in order to " solve cash-flow issues in the ITTF
Lausanne office ", there is no evident nor apparent trace in the ITTF Financial Statements of 2004
as to the amount of CAD 1.078.293 relating to these mortgages.
(4) Did Mr Sharara hide the mortgages described under (3) to the EC members, to the ITTF Congress
and maybe to the ITTF Auditors as well ?
(5) Why do the ITTF Financial Statements of the year 2005 only show around CAD 1.755.000 for the
sale of the company 1496133 ONTARIO Ltd to Versadex, also this sales transaction has been
done for an amount ( as confirmed by Mr Sharara himself ) of CAD 2.000.000 ?
What has happened with the missing CAD 245.000 ?
All these are very simple questions, whereof most can be answered by 'YES' or 'NO', thus the
overriding question reads as follows:
WHY DID Mr SHARARA NOT RESPOND TO THE QUESTIONS (1) to (6) ??
Mr Sharara is claiming, that " There are no secrets, all was done legally and all is available as public
records ".
Just to note, that as far as the different real estate sales' transactions are concerned, ETTU was not
claiming an "illegality", but ETTU just has pointed out (1) the lack of transparency and the strong
conflict of interests with regard to Mr Sharara's wife (Versadex) having been involved in ITTF
transactions worth more than CAD 2.000.000 and (2) the fact that the properties ITTF had sold in
2005 to Versadex for CAD 2.000.000 have been resold in the later years for CAD 3.650.000.
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ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 6 of 7
(3) The conflict of interest of Mr Sharara due to his implication in the GLADSTONE Sports & Health
Center (GSHC)
ETTU is far from having objected to Mr Sharara's charity work, as well as from having disgraced or
attacked this charity work.
ETTU has (once again) just pointed out and contested Mr Sharara's method to act, that consists in
mixing and amalgamating ITTF and TMS interests and affairs, and since 2008 also those of GSHC,
under one umbrella, i.e. that one of Mr Sharara and his wife. This inevitably is the source of an
important lack of transparency and of a (new) conflict of interests.
Furthermore, Mr Sharara – according to available public information – never has asked for the
permission, neither to the ITTF-EC nor to the ITTF Congress, to use quite an important part of TMS
revenues and funds ( i.e. table tennis money ) to " provide donations to the Food Bank " and " to sponsor
athletes from low-income families in various sports including table tennis, tennis, diving, athletics, dance,
ice-hockey, etc. "., i.e. donations to persons and bodies totally outside to the table tennis community.
Maybe that by having asked for authorization, Mr Sharara would have got the requested permission,
but WHY didn't he ask for, WHY did he (repeatedly) spend some ten thousand US$ out from the table
tennis funds without asking for permission and without rendering any account of it ?
In his note of 08 April 2013, Mr Sharara has moreover confirmed, that TMS has provided a loan to
GSHC, " for which GSHC makes regular payments ".
It looks legitimate to ask, what will happen if GSHC would one day become unable to pay back the
loan given to it by TMS ? ( also everybody sincerely hopes, this will not really happen ).
With all the due respect for Mr Sharara's charitable activities, such activities and donations shall take
place either with exclusively private funds only, or with the prior permission of those, to whom the
donated money belongs, i.e. in the case of Mr Sharara, the ITTF-EC or the ITTF Congress.
One example may clarify ETTU's non equivocal position as to charity matters: when some years ago
the Croatian player Sandra PAOVIC became the victim of a severe car accident, ETTU has made quite
an important donation in order to allow Sandra to follow a re-education program, but this donation
has been made in total transparency: first, the ETTU Executive Board took the relating decision, then
the ETTU member Associations have been informed and by the way invited to act in the same way.
In relation with GSHC, a lot of questions are left unanswered, some of them having been asked earlier
already, but having up to now remained without an answer from Mr Sharara:
(1) Did TMS provide funds to acquire and/or to renovate the GSHC ?
(2) When the answer to question (1) is 'YES', what have been the amounts having respectively been
invested by TMS into the acquisition and/or the renovation of GSHC ?
(3) Is the quite important rental fee ( around US$ 5.500 per month ) paid to GSHC for the ITTF (and
TMS ??) Ottawa offices appropriate and adapted to the rented volume/surface ??
(4) How many US$ did TMS spent for donations and charity in the years from 2005 to 2012 ?
(5) Are there any guarantees for TMS to eventually recover its funds, when GSHC would become
unable to honor its financial obligations towards TMS ?
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ETTU – European Table Tennis Union a.s.b.l. - The President page 7 of 7
CONCLUSIONS
With his note of 08 April 2013 Mr Sharara has confirmed the information that had been provided by
ETTU in its Memorandum of 02 April 2013, and Mr Sharara has moreover provided some new
information, that up to now had been kept hidden or 'secret'.
On the other hand, Mr Sharara, despite his lengthy explanations, was quite reluctant to simply
respond to the different (simple) questions ETTU had put forward.
ETTU and the world table tennis community thus remain waiting for the answers to their
questions, as well as for the audited Financial Statements of TMS for the years 2005 to 2012.
Annex: Extract from the hyperlink "
http://ooakforum.com "
Mi 24. Apr 2013, 15:53
