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Forward Racing Has Frozen Accounts, Misses Indianapolis

The arrest of Forward Racing boss Giovanni Cuzari in mid-July leaves the team struggling with uncertainty as far as the racing program is concerned. Participating in the races after the summer break has now become an iffy thing and the team has asked for support from the sponsors and the rights holders of the MotoGP championship.
No more Athina money for Forward Racing 1 photo
Photo: Forward Racing
The Swiss police arrested Giovanni Cuzari and tax inspector Libero Galli almost a fortnight ago, investigating charges of money laundering and corruption. Despite early declarations from the lawyer, who stated that the matter will be resolved in a matter of days, Cuzari and Galli are reportedly still detained.

Since Forward Racing's accounts are all in Cuzari's name, and since he is in the middle of a criminal investigation that involves alleged financial infractions, they have all been frozen, leaving the team unable to pay for their hotels, flights and similar expenses.

The bikes and the team's belongings are being shipped to the next round by the IRTA, but that's about all the racing body can do. Forward's team manager Marco Curioni has already asked sponsors and Dorna to bear with the situation.

Dorna and IRTA understand, Athina doesn't

Both Dorna and the IRTA understood that the predicament Forward is in now is not the team's fault, and said that their two slots will be retained even if they were to miss both the Indianapolis and Brno round. Nothing was mentioned after the Czech round, most likely because everybody is waiting the investigation to produce some results that would allow to draw more realistic plans for the future.

Athina however, who are the main sponsor of Forward Racing, canceled the existing contracts and ceased payments, making things even harder for the team. Apparently, Forward needs around €2 million ($2.21 mil) through the end of the season as operational costs alone.

This moment is a very bad one for Forward as they also have to close a deal with Yamaha for the 2016 bikes, while in an obvious impossibility to provide firm financial support to their goal.

The Lugano prosecutor agreed on some new operational strategy for the team to secure new funding from other sources in an attempt to keep things rolling. It looks like the situation is slowly getting better, if missing the Indianapolis round, with prospects and hopes for Brno can be referred to as "better". The same situation obviously affects the Moto2 team.

Stay with us for news on the case.
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