CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — The organizing president of the Alpine skiing world championships in Crans-Montana in February was suspended Wednesday as he awaits trial for fraud in his business.
The Swiss ski federation said Claude-Alain Schmidhalter also is provisionally suspended as a vice president from the governing body ahead of his court hearing on Oct. 27.
“This decision follows the indictment of Claude-Alain Schmidhalter by the public prosecutor’s office of Valais canton,” Swiss Ski said in a statement, adding the criminal case is not related to the sport and he retains the presumption of innocence.
Swiss daily Blick reported the ski official denies the allegation he defrauded a former partner in their engineering firm of about 300,000 Swiss francs ($360,000).
Crans-Montana hosts the Alpine worlds from Feb. 1-14 just 13 months after a devastating fire at a bar in the resort popular with young people. It killed 41 people and injured 115. The bar owners and multiple public officials face charges arising from the incident.
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