Chechen boss appears before Swiss prosecutors
The Chechen boss of Swiss football club Neuchatel Xamax, Bulat Chagaev, appeared before prosecutors in Geneva on Thursday amid forgery and attempted fraud allegations.
Chagaev is under investigation after media reports suggested he had submitted a falsified document to prove his solvency during a bankruptcy trial.
The football boss, accompanied by his lawyer, Jacques Barillon, attended a hearing at the public prosecutors office on Thursday afternoon.
A prosecutor in the canton of Neuchatel said last week that a Bank of America document provided by Chagaev stating that he held $35 million was not produced by the institution.
Over the past fortnight, the Swiss courts have searched the Geneva offices of two of Chagaev's companies, his home in Saint-Sulpice near Lausanne and the office of Neuchatel Xamax.
Chagaev's ownership of Xamax has been controversial in Switzerland -- earlier this season he sacked the entire coaching staff after the side lost 2-0 to Basel.
More recently, the Swiss Football League fined the club 20,000 francs (€16,440) for flouting licensing rules, after they failed to respond to queries over their budget.
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