The programme alleged back in September that Azerbaijan had paid millions of dollars to AIBA with Ivan Khodabakhsh (pictured), the chief operating officer of the AIBA-owned World Series of Boxing (WSB), facilitating the payment of $9 million (£6 million/€7.5 million) in exchange for two gold medals at London 2012.

AIBA President C K Wu reacted furiously to the allegations stating that his organisation has a "zero-tolerance" view on corruption and he immediately set up a five-person Special Investigation Committee, chaired by former USA Boxing President and current AIBA Disciplinary Commission chairman Tom Virgets, to look into the allegations.

The Committee, formed on September 23, has now completed its investigation with Virgets saying that the BBC claims had no credibility.

"We have conducted an exhaustive investigation over the past two months, and we have concluded that the allegations made by BBC Newsnight in September that there was an investment by a Government or any discussion or effort to guarantee gold medals were completely without merit," he said.

Virgets continued that his Committee found that "the BBC relied heavily on hearsay" to support the allegations it had made in relation to the source of the investment, which the investigation has established "was in fact made by a single private investor named Mr Hamid Hamidov".

The Committee said it was "satisfied that the investment was made by Hamidov and was made for commercial purposes, namely to assist in the establishment and operation of US boxing franchises".

Virgets added that the funds in question had been transferred by WSB from its Swiss base in Lausanne to Colorado Springs in the United States to finance boxing franchises in four cities there and that the subject of medals had never come up in any discussions or agreements.

"This was a purely commercial investment, unconnected to the Olympic Games, and we have traced both the source of funds and their disbursement, and documented our findings," said Virgets.

The Committee also found that BBC allegations made in respect of Khodabakhsh were "groundless and unsupported by any credible evidence" while "the BBC was either not willing or unable to prove the truth of its allegations of possible corruption.

"The Committee was disappointed that having volunteered to provide evidence, the BBC merely provided the Committee with show transcripts of what it had previously broadcast, and unsubstantiated statements by sources who made speculative claims but who refused to cooperate with the investigation," said the report.

"The only interview notes provided by the BBC relating to claims by the sources came in an email from the BBC on October 7, 2011, some two weeks after the Newsnight allegations had been broadcast, and contained speculation by "primary sources" under a prominent BBC caveat typed in capital letters and in bold that stated: 'MAY CONTAIN SOME ALLEGATIONS WHICH HAVE NOT YET BEEN SUBSTANTIATED BY NEWSNIGHT'.

"The investigation found that two of the BBC sources were anonymous, and the other 'primary sources' for its September 2011 allegations included a former AIBA Vice-President who is currently serving a five-year suspension from all boxing activity, a former WSB franchise manager whose consultancy was terminated in January 2011, and a former boxing licensee who was involved in protracted litigation against AIBA.

"Given the nature of the relationship between these individuals and AIBA and WSB, the Committee had serious concerns about the level of reliance the BBC had placed on the accounts of such individuals.

"Each of the individuals identified as sources by the BBC either had a motivation to disparage AIBA or WSB or lacked the credentials needed to be considered experts in amateur boxing.

"The investigation examined hundreds of pages of documents, emails, financial statements, and transcripts, and interviewed and took statements from dozens of officials from AIBA, from WSB in Switzerland and the United States, the Boxing Federation of Azerbaijan, Government officials in Baku, referees, technical experts, athletes, as well as the private sector investor himself."

Virgets was joined on the Special Investigation Committee by Humbert Furgoni from France, AIBA Legal Counsel Ricardo Contreras from Mexico and AIBA Disciplinary Commission members Dennis O'Connell and Antonio de Guzman from USA and Spain respectively.

He confirmed that the Special Investigation Committee's final report had today been sent to AIBA.

The BBC refused to back down from their allegations.

"Newsnight is aware of AIBA's position and we stand by our investigation," a statement said.

"While we anticipate AIBA making all the evidence they reviewed public, we are continuing to cooperate with the ongoing independent investigation by the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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