Hungary's István Darázs banned for life by the International skating union

Based on an investigation conducted by the disciplinary commission of the International skating union (ISU), István Darázs has been found guilty of violating the organisation’s code of ethics.

By Carl Savard

Last March, a complaint was filed by the ISU, represented by its legal advisor Dr. Béatrice Pfister, against Mr. István Darázs concerning unethical conduct he might have had during the organisation of two short track speed skating development training camps held in October 2015 and January 2016. While he was working for the Hungarian National Skating Federation (HNSF) as team leader for both the short track and long track Hungarian program, Mr. Darázs was in charge of organizing two events held in Bormio, Italy from the 5th of October 2015 to the 15th and the other one in Budapest, Hungary from the 4th of January 2016 to the 14th.

ISU’s officials are accusing Mr. Darázs of blowing up bills related to the organisation of the said events before sending invoices to the ISU for the part the organisation was to pay like it was mentioned in the contract. The ISU believes the Hungarian organizer was responsible for many irregularities related to the organisation of the two training camps, irregularities mainly linked to the budget but also to the fact that a limited partnership company founded by Mr. Darázs in 1994, ZSUR Bt. was going to get the contract of organizing those events. A clear situation of conflict of interest. Having organized events in the past as a member of the ISU and HNSF, those irregularities can’t be linked to a lack of experience. Even though István Darázs says he cut all his links to ZSUR Bt. in 2010, his children have been active in the company since 2003. Adding to that, not too long after the Hungarian federation suspended him because of the ISU investigation, Darázs rejoined the company.

The ISU released a statement last week to announce that a committee consisting of Germany’s Volker Waldeck, Netherlands’ Albert Hazelhoff and Canada’s Jean-François Monette came to the conclusion that the offender did in fact violate the organisation’s code of ethics and would need to reimburse exceeding costs related to the organization of the events linked to this inquiry. The committee also stated that Mr. István Darázs should, from now on, be banned for life from any activities related to the ISU. The offender can appeal of the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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