pita comments on Go4Balkan money *

In May 2014, Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita organised a charity CS:GO tournament with prominent figures in the scene with the aim of helping the victims of the floods in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia.

Over €25,000 were raised from more than 1,800 donators along with a reported $1,600 from twitch ad revenue, but recently questions have been raised about where the money has gone, also because of the lack of updates from the mentor of the project.

Contacted by HLTV.org, pita explained that a large sum (over €16,000) went to Otvorena Mreza, a non-profit and independent non-governmental organization, to build a house for a Serbian family that was left homeless by the heavy flooding.

Photos of the house can be found below and a document signed and stamped by Otvorena Mreza can be downloaded here.

*UPDATE* A receipt of the transaction to Otvorena Mreza can be found here.

According to pita, three different accounts were used because of restrictions from Gofundme and Paypal, which forced him to resort to one account that belonged to Stockholm E-sport Productions AB (to which ex-NiP manager Niklas "Fiskoo" Fischier is allegedly the only with with access, says RoomonFire's Anders Blume, who used to work for NiP TV).

Regarding the rest of the money, it will be used to help the Croatian region of Slavonija, says pita.

Explain to us how much money was collected back in May 2014? Why was it on several accounts and whose accounts were they exactly?

Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita: We had €25,323 collected over three accounts plus $1600 in ad revenue from twitch, minus fees from Gofundme and Paypal. The reason we had three accounts was actually because of some rules made by the donation page (gofundme.com) and also paypal that we, in some way, managed to break.

In the first account, we used some "ads" about community members getting prizes after donating, something that violated gofundme.com's policy. Therefore, the donations page quickly got taken down and that’s the reason the amount is so low in contrast to the other accounts.

We ran into trouble getting in contact with gofundme saying that we wanted to remove the ad on the page. One of the main reasons for that was because it was during a weekend. We quickly decided hours before the event that we should open up a new gofundme account and that’s when I needed help from another party to have a paypal connected to that account. Unfortunately, that account also got blocked when we reached approximately €2,000, this time by Paypal, which said that, since it was a private account, it could not collect more than €2,000 in a single day.

And this was when we finally came to the last account, to which we decided to have all the money wired, and we managed to get the last donations to that account without any problem.

The first account is mine. As you can see in the posted transaction details no money has been withdrawn or added to that account since it got blocked by gofundme.com.

The second account we used belongs to my friend Fifflaren, who offered himself to help out. But because his account was private, it soon got blocked. Fifflaren wired the total amount he had on his account after the event ended to the third and final account.

The third account is the one the rest of the money went to. The account is a business one, meaning it is possible to collect a larger sum without any restrictions from Paypal. This account belongs to Stockholm E-sport Productions AB and it’s still running today without me having any access to it whatsoever.

What were your plans with the money, which charities have you sent it to so far? And what is the plan for the rest of it, and where exactly is it now?

Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita: As I explained in an earlier personal statement, my plan was to actually donate this money as soon as possible after the event because of the situation. But just in a matter of days (from planning to executing the charity) the needs of the victims changed from basic needs to future needs. Example: what do we do now when our house has been destroyed? The problem was no longer food and medicine; it was how these people could start a new life. That’s when I decided with limited resources to try and do something that would change the victims' lives in a positive way, not only for a single day but for as long as they live.

The charity we have sent the money to so far is otvorenamreza.ba, to which we donated €16,873. I met this organization two times in Sarajevo during the summer. Since Bosnia & Herzegovina has all the three nationalities, I decided that we should invest money in a house in Bijeljina, which is located in the Serbian republic, northeast of Bosnia & Herzegovina. In this case, I would manage to do something big for Bosnia & Herzegovina, but also for a family from Serbia.

It was impossible for us to send the money to Otvorena Mreza's paypal, so they gave us the option to wire it to their account in the Netherlands. That is why we had to go through an account in the Netherlands. Otvorena Mreza decided that they would cover the fees included in that transfer, something its PR manager explained to the troll calling her.

The rest of the money is planned to be donated to the northeastern part of Croatia, known as Slavonija.

Why is this such a lengthy process? And why did you wait until now to reveal it?

Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita: Well, to be honest, in some way I wish I had donated all the money immediately after the charity to an organisation like the Red Cross. In this case I wouldn’t need to invest all the time I have invested so far only to make sure we use the money in the right way. But at the same time I’m proud that I didn’t because now we have proof of the community doing something for charity, something that would’ve been forgotten if we had just donated the money to the Red Cross, for example.

As I have explained earlier in a statement, I was really careful with the money. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. I was physically present in Sarajevo in late July and in early August (before ESL Cologne). I met Otvorena Mreza at their headquarters and discussed opportunities to donate money and what we could do with it. Since our charity was for the Balkan region and not for a particular country, my interest was not to invest everything in Bosnia, and that’s when I was suggested to help a Serbian family living in Bosnia & Herzegovina. In this case I’d “catch” two nations with one donation. The amount needed was also 2/3 of the money.

Otvorena Mreza has done all the practical work. They are in cooperation with local authorities, looking into what family is in the most need. Also a lot of paperwork needs to be done. And that’s something I’m really glad I do not have to do, and that’s something they have been doing since September. That’s the main reason why it has been a lengthy process.

The reason I waited to reveal everything was because I wanted to do everything at the same time. But unfortunately suspicions were raised and I had to announce everything we’ve done so far, regardless of me wanting to publish everything at the same time.

Do you think you could have done something differently in the past 8 months in regards to this situation or was this how it had to play out due to the circumstances?

Faruk "⁠pita⁠" Pita: Looking back at what I have done there are things I could have done better. One thing for certain is that I could have updated the community on what we were doing and I could have been more transparent with the money. If that had been the case, I would have done the community and myself a big favor, and I would most likely not be sitting here today and writing this. That’s also one reason why I can’t blame anyone for wanting information from me regarding this. Since September, when we did the transfer, everything has been out of reach for me, meaning the only thing I could do was just to lay back, wait and hope to get everything settled as soon as possible so I could reach out to the community. But as I’ve come to understand, building a house and getting the right family to move in and also get all the legal papers done doesn’t happen overnight.

A big part of the community believes I have access to the account where we gathered 22 700€ (+ 2 300€), something I don’t, and that’s also something I wish I had been more clear about.