Hans-Joachim Eckert

Hans-Joachim Eckert (born 1948, in Plochingen) is a German jurist. He was Presiding Judge of the business court division at the Regional Court Munich I from October 2005 to July 2015.[1] Between 17 July 2012 and 10 May 2017, he was the first chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee.[2]

Hans-Joachim Eckert
Born1948 (age 72–73)
Plochingen
NationalityGerman
OccupationJudge
Years active1978–2015
TitleChairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee
Term2012–2017
SuccessorVassilios Skouris

Background and education

Eckert was born in Plochingen, Baden-Württemberg. Shortly after he was born, his family moved to Upper Bavaria. He completed his Abitur in Freising and then studied jurisprudence in Munich.[3]

Professional career

Between 1978 and 1985 Eckert was judge at the Regional Court Munich I, criminal division, and then public prosecutor at the Munich public prosecutor's office II. From 1985 to 1991 he worked as a judge at the Regional Court Munich I, civil division, and from 1991 to 1998 he was a prosecutor at the prosecutor's office Munich II, as head of department responsible for tax evasion, economic crimes and organized crime. From 1998 to 1999 he was senior public prosecutor at the Higher Regional Court Munich, where he was head of division and responsible for money laundering, organized crime and international relations.

From 1999 to 2003 he was then senior public prosecutor at the Munich public prosecutor's office I. As head of division for criminal cases and economic crime, Eckert was responsible for information privacy, Nazi crimes, economic and organized crimes.[4] In September 2003 he became Presiding Judge at the Regional Court Munich I and until September 2005 was focused on drug-related crimes.[1]

From October 2005 until his retirement[5] in July 2015, Eckert was Presiding Judge of the business court division at the Regional Court Munich I.[1][6][7]

The focus of his activities were corruption cases, tax evasion, general economic crime, organized crime, money laundering, cybercrime, and asset forfeiture.

Eckert was also active internationally for the European Commission, in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey.[6] In Bulgaria he was assigned by the European Union to advise the government and to help build a prosecutor's office specialized on corruption. In addition, he examined in cooperation with an Italian Mafia investigator 300 unsolved murders there.[3]

Eckert lectures on organized crime, cybercrime and asset forfeiture at the German Judges Academy, the Academy of European Law and in the training institutes of the Bavarian State Police.[1]

He has been a presiding judge at the Regional Court Munich I for a number of known court cases in relation to economic crime, including corruption processes associated with bribes at Siemens, Ferrostaal and MAN SE.[8]

He also led the court process for the purchase of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International by BayernLB.[9]

FIFA Ethics Committee

Hans Joachim Eckert was elected to the FIFA Ethics Committee in 2011.[7][10] On 17 July 2012, he was named chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee[2][11][12] by the FIFA Executive Committee.[13] This decision was confirmed in May 2013 by a FIFA Congress.[14] End of 2014, his work was criticized by the chief investigator of the FIFA Ethics Committee Michael J. Garcia. At the same time, Garcia stepped down from his position.[15][16] In October 2015, the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, chaired by Eckert, imposed a provisional suspension of 90 days against FIFA President Sepp Blatter, FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke and UEFA President Michel Platini.[5][17] On 23 November 2015, Eckert opened the official proceedings against Blatter and Platini.[18] Upon closure of the procedure, Eckert announced on 21 December 2015 the sentence and imposed upon both a ban of eight years as well as fines.[19] He opened the case against Valcke at the beginning of January 2016.[20] The judgment was delivered on 12 January 2016. Valcke was banned for 12 years[21] and fined SFr.100.000.[22]

In May 2017 he was controversially told that he would not be renominated after he had already been invited and traveled to the FIFA Congress in Bahrain. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk he explained that critical persons would apparently rather be replaced. He was replaced by Vassilios Skouris.[23]

Sports Governance Unit

Together with Cornel Borbély,[24] the former chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, and Marc Tenbücken, a communications expert, Borbély founded the Sports Governance Unit in November 2017,[25] which advises sports associations, clubs and sponsors on good governance.[26]

Personal

Eckert is a passionate mushroom picker.[8] In his spare time he also visits a Realschule in the Bavarian Oberland to explain the judiciary system to students and to answer their questions.[3]

References
  1. "ECKERT Hans-Joachim - Germany" (PDF). FIFA. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  2. "Hans-Joachim Eckert" (in German). NWZ Online. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  3. Ott, Klaus (2012-07-19). "Schieds-Richter für die Fifa" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  4. "Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert" (PDF). FIFA. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  5. Ott, Klaus (2015-10-09). "Alles andere als Blatters Feigenblatt" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  6. "Hans-Joachim Eckert" (in German). Compliance Circle München. Archived from the original on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  7. "Hans-Joachim Eckert: Blatters Schicksal in den Händen eines Münchners" (in German). Eurosport. 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  8. Hujer, Marc; Wulzinger, Michael (2012-08-27). "Fahnder im Imperium". Spiegel. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  9. "Bewährungsstrafe für Ex-Landesbankchef Schmidt" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  10. "Hans-Joachim Eckert: Ein Deutscher besiegelte Blatters Schicksal" (in German). Hannoversche Allgemeine. 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  11. "Münchner Richter warnt Fifa-Präsident Blatter: "Entweder er klärt auf oder er ist weg"" (in German). Focus. 2012-08-18. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  12. "Gestählter Mann in Strafsachen: FIFA-Richter Eckert" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. 2014-11-13. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  13. "Chairmen of Ethics Committee announced and new Code of Ethics approved". FIFA. 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  14. Ashelm, Michael (2013-05-31). "Ein bisschen Applaus" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  15. Fritsch, Oliver (2014-11-13). "Das war so nicht abgemacht, Herr Staatsanwalt!" (in German). Zeit. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  16. "Fifa-Chefermittler Michael Garcia tritt zurück" (in German). stern. 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  17. Boren, Cindy (2015-10-08). "FIFA's Sepp Blatter suspended, along with Jerome Valcke and Michel Platini". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  18. Becker, Christoph (2015-11-23). "Blatter hört die Engel singen" (in German). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  19. de Menezes, Jack (2015-12-21). "Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini banned: Fifa and Uefa presidents to appeal eight-year bans from football". Independent. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  20. "Adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee opens proceedings against Mr Valcke". FIFA. 2016-01-07. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  21. Gibson, Owen (2016-02-12). "Fifa's former secretary general Jérôme Valcke banned for 12 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  22. Collett, Mike (2016-02-24). "FIFA's Rogues' Gallery - banned, fined or suspended". Reuters. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  23. "Kritische Leute werden lieber ausgetauscht" auf deutschlandfunk.de, 11. Mai 2017, abgerufen 25. Juni 2017
  24. Wagner, Elmar (2017-11-21). "Frühere Fifa-Chefethiker gründen Firma" (in German). Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  25. "Frühere FIFA-Ethiker gründen Beratungsfirma" (in German). Zeit Online. 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  26. "Ex-FIFA-Ethiker gründen neue "Sports Governance Unit"" (in German). Deutschlandfunk. 2017-11-26. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
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