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World Athletics announced on Thursday it has discovered more than $1.7 million in corporate theft.
The international governing body for cross country and track and field said two employees and a consultant stole “just over €1.5 million” from the organization over several years. One employee had already left the company, while the other worker and consultant were fired following an internal investigation. Those findings have been handed over to authorities, and World Athletics is “determined to recover whatever monies we are able using the full force of the law,” president Sebastian Coe said.
World Athletics said its finance department uncovered the fraud while running its first annual audit “under a new financial leadership team,” and it ordered an independent review on top of its internal one that found “no other fraudulent activity.” The governing body also said it’s implementing a “set of enhanced internal financial controls.”
“Too many organisations brush incidents like this under the carpet, terminating employment with limited information which allows perpetrators to continue their scams and thefts within new organisations,” Coe said. “We are not that type of organisation.”
World Athletics put out its statement following a story by 3 Wire Sports, which first reported the news. The outlet reported the two employees are former chief operating officer Vineesh Kochhar and former director of broadcast, James Lord.
Kochhar and Lord left World Athletics in December and July, respectively, according to their LinkedIn profiles. The two men did not immediately respond to Front Office Sports requests for comment. Lord’s LinkedIn profile says he left World Athletics for Relevent Football Partners—the new London-based arm of the Stephen Ross-founded international soccer promoter Relevent—which manages the commercial rights for UEFA club competitions. A spokesperson for Relevent Football Partners tells FOS that as of this month, Lord is no longer with the company, but did not say if that was because of the World Athletics situation.
World Athletics oversees the sport at its highest level. For Paris last year, World Athletics announced it would pay $50,000 to athletes who won Olympic gold, making athletics the first sport to pay prize money at the Games. The $2.4 million prize pot was funded from World Athletics’ revenue share with the International Olympic Committee.
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