Updated: Olympic Boxing Exec Director Suspended, Documents Posted Here

(ATR) The Interim Management Committee of Olympic boxing federation AIBA is ordering the suspension of Executive Director William Louis-Marie.

The order comes in a letter from the IMC dated August 12 that rejects a number of accusations and assertions made by Louis-Marie in a n August 11 letter to the IMC.

Just hours after, AIBA President C.K. Wu issued a response that the IMC order isn’t legal and won’t be observed.

"Those accusations are entirely false and strongly disputed by AIBA," says Wu in the statement, addressed as he puts it, to the "so-called IMC". The IMC has requested that Wu refrain from making statements that imply he is taking an official position for the federation.

But Wu and Louis-Marie have been defiant in their communications regarding the leadership crisis that has struck the federation since the end of July.

At a meeting of the ruling Executive Committee in Moscow July 25, 13 of 16 committee members voted to form an Interim Management Committee to take over supervision of the day-to-day operations of AIBA.

The uprising by the Executive Committee is the result of reports that the federation is on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of financial mismanagement under Wu. The IMC believes that Wu has hidden reports from auditor KPMG that indicate AIBA could be in debt for as much as $15 million. That sum could bankrupt the federation

Wu has challenged the authority of the EC to form an interim management committee and a Swiss court will hear arguments about the validity of the move on August 17. In his response Saturday, Wu cites that pending court hearing as another reason to ignore the call for Louis-Marie to be suspended.

In his August 11 letter to the Executive Committee, Louis-Marie accuses the IMC of criminal conduct and alleges that Swiss authorities are now conducting an investigation. Louis-Marie discards any blame for the financial crisis facing AIBA from President Wu and says it is the fault of two previous executive directors .

The letter from Louis-Marie also steps into conspiracy theories, for the first time accusing World Boxing Council Chairman Mauricio Sulaiman as part of the plot to bring down Wu.

William-Marie says Sulaiman has made "false and derogatory statements against AIBA in the media". Sulaiman has been critical of AIBA for venturing away from amateur boxing with the formation of professional enterprises.

The August 12 reply to Louis-Marie from the IMC says that he is putting the federation at risk with his defiant tone.

"By doing so, you are not only harming AIBA’s reputation and image, but putting its existence itself at risk," says the IMC letter.

"The near-unanimous decisions taken by the EC during its annual meeting of July 24-25 were motivated by the serious suspicions of mismanagement linked to Ching-Kuo Wu’s acts as President of AIBA. All of the support received by the Executive Committee since, in particular by the National Federations, as well as all the obstacles you try to put in front of the EC and the IMC, only confirm those suspicions. In particular:

- You have been blocking all access to AIBA’s offices to the IMC as well as to the members of the EC, without any ground nor justification;

- You have refused, and are still delaying, the communication of the KPMG report on AIBA’s financial situation, as well as to all accounting documents linked to AIBA, both to the members of the EC and to the National Federations, there again in violation of your contractual duties;

- The information we got from KPMG confirms some of the mismanagement suspicions, in particular considering the strong indebtedness in which AIBA seems to be in;

- You are attacking every single person who is trying to investigate the wrongdoing suspicions, this by any possible means."

The letter from the IMC goes on to order Louis-Marie to stand down from his position, which he’s held for one year.

"These dramatic circumstances only show that you are at the best trying to defend, by any way, the person who named you as Executive Director (i.e. Ching-Kuo Wu) and, at worst, that you are directly trying to hide wrongdoings and potentially criminal acts that were committed within AIBA.

"In light of these elements, and as the Interim Management power within AIBA, we hereby suspend you with immediate effect, for the sake of AIBA and its members. Once the situation finally gets calmer, we shall identify all of the measures to be taken, both from a civil and potentially criminal point of view. This shall be done simultaneously to an internal investigation within AIBA intended to find and prosecute all wrongdoings, whoever is responsible," says the letter from the IMC.

The ugly dispute over the leadership of the federation comes less than two weeks before the start of the 2017 World Championships in Hamburg. While the work of staging the event is largely in the hands of a local organizing committee, it remains to be seen whether the turbulence at the AIBA headquarters will affect the event.

Below is the full text of the letters and statements mentioned in this story.

August 10 Letter from William Louis-Marie

Lausanne, August 10th 2017

Ref. No: ED170810-1

To: Interim Management Committee (IMC)

Dear Members of the so-called IMC, I refer to your letter dated August 8, 2017 in order to clarify some allegations which are obviously inaccurate and false. First of all, AIBA will not continue a pointless exchange of name-calling initiated by the so-called IMC and will focus on the facts: 1. The so-called IMC's request for urgent provisional measures was rejected. 2. Criminal proceedings have been indeed initiated by the Public Ministry against Franco Falcinelli & all following the filing of a complaint by AIBA. 3. The so-called IMC fails to address the nature, extent and purpose of its ties with former Executive Directors Ho Kim and Karim Bouzidi. It notably fails to address the question why Ho Kim - who, among others, claims before Swiss courts millions of Swiss francs against AIBA, whose bank accounts in Switzerland were frozen upon AIBA's request and against whom AIBA and its subsidiaries have possible claim of several millions- is drafting the so-called IMC's correspondence (cf attachment).

It also does not explain why it is collaborating with Karim Bouzidi, who also claims significant amounts of money against AIBA, has been accused of developing purposely "an Axis of Influence" by the Special Investigation Committee in its report done after the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and who is consciously collaborating with a declared competitor of AIBA, i.e. WBC, whose Chairman, Mauricio Sulaiman, does not hesitate to make false and derogatory statements against AIBA in the media.

It does not address also how it intends to reconcile the interests of AIBA and its subsidiaries who has claims of several millions against Ho Kim and the interests of Ho Kim. It is difficult to understand why Ho Kim is working with the IMC unless he has potentially a side-agreement with the IMC that all claims of AIBA against him will be waived and all procedure against him will be withdrawn. It is also important to notice that the "financial mismanagement accusations" are related to alleged claims of FCIT and Benkons, both of which are a direct heritage of the period during which Ho Kim was AIBA's executive director.

As additional evidence of the collusion between the so-called IMC with Ho Kim -and Karim Bouzidi-, we hereby attach copy of an email addressed by the so-called IMC notably to (i) Ho Kim, (ii) Karim Bouzidi, and (iii) Roberto Garea, a former AIBA employee.

Those facts strongly indicate that the so-called IMC is working against AIBA, its mission to develop boxing in all its form, and they form a sufficient basis to file a criminal complaint, limited at this stage to criminal mismanagement (gestion déloyale) and violation of trade secrecy (violation du secret d’affaires), against the Members of the so-called IMC, which AIBA did in order to protect its members (all affiliated national federations), employees and stakeholders. The Swiss Public Ministry will investigate those facts, as well as other potential violations of Swiss criminal law, as contained in AIBA's criminal complaint. In order not to impair the ongoing criminal investigation, we will not attach the other pieces of evidence communicated to the Public Ministry. The only wise -and legitimate- decision that the so-called IMC could take would be to mitigate the harm already done to AIBA by withdrawing the request for provisional measures filed with the President of the Tribunal d'arrondissement in Lausanne, which we invite you to do, and to fully disclose all facts and evidence about the interests in motion behind your actions. In any event, you are requested to stop interfering with AIBA's day-to-day management so AIBA can focus on successfully delivering its future events.

Yours Sincerely,

William Louis-Marie AIBA Executive Director

Cc: Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, AIBA President AIBA Executive Committee Members Mr. Thomas Virgets, AIBA Disciplinary Commission Chairman

August 12 Letter from the AIBA Interim Management Committee

August 12, 2017

William,

We hereby refer to your letter of August 10, 2017, as well as to the other recent correspondence you have done in the name of AIBA and, more generally, your general conduct since the EC Meeting of July 24-25 in Moscow.

To begin with, we ask you in the strongest possible way to cease immediately from imparting severely wrong and misleading information concerning members of the IMC, the EC as well as AIBA itself, including through the lodging of a criminal complaint that you know is slanderous.

This "criminal complaint", which consists of two short pages and seven allegations all of which are entirely wrong and deceptive (including the fact it has been filed in the name of AIBA, without any competence to do so), is all but certain to have been filed in the context of the pending procedure before the civil courts in Lausanne. Such a way of proceeding is not only appalling, it very likely fulfils all the conditions of a criminal act under Swiss law for wilful defamation, coercion, false accusations and blackmail. All are very serious offences, made even worse by the fact that you claim acting in your official position of Executive Director of AIBA.

As mentioned in our statement of August 8, all of the recent circumstances show that you seem ready to endanger AIBA solely to pursue you own personal interests, as well as the ones of ChingKuo Wu. By doing so, you are not only harming AIBA’s reputation and image, but putting its existence itself at risk.

The near-unanimous decisions taken by the EC during its annual meeting of July 24-25 were motivated by the serious suspicions of mismanagement linked to Ching-Kuo Wu’s acts as President of AIBA. All of the support received by the Executive Committee since, in particular by the National Federations, as well as all the obstacles you try to put in front of the EC and the IMC, only confirm those suspicions. In particular:

- You have been blocking all access to AIBA’s offices to the IMC as well as to the members of the EC, without any ground nor justification;

- You have refused, and are still delaying, the communication of the KPMG report on AIBA’s financial situation, as well as to all accounting documents linked to AIBA, both to the members of the EC and to the National Federations, there again in violation of your contractual duties;

- The information we got from KPMG confirms some of the mismanagement suspicions, in particular considering the strong indebtedness in which AIBA seems to be in;

- You are attacking every single person who is trying to investigate the wrongdoing suspicions, this by any possible mean.

Considering (i) the valid EC decisions, (ii) the support of NFs, (iii) the violation of your legal and statutory duties towards members of the EC and of AIBA, as well as (iv) all of the aforesaid elements that support the wrongdoing suspicions, your recent acts and writings constitute a very serious violation of your contractual duties towards AIBA. It also directly infringes your mission pursuant to AIBA’s Statutes, in particular the necessity to implement the EC’s decisions pursuant to Art. 50.3.

These dramatic circumstances only show that you are at the best trying to defend, by any way, the person who named you as Executive Director (i.e. Ching-Kuo Wu) and, at worst, that you are directly trying to hide wrongdoings and potentially criminal acts that were committed within AIBA.

In light of these elements, and as the Interim Management power within AIBA, we hereby suspend you with immediate effect, for the sake of AIBA and its members. Once the situation finally gets calmer, we shall identify all of the measures to be taken, both from a civil and potentially criminal point of view. This shall be done simultaneously to an internal investigation within AIBA intended to find and prosecute all wrongdoings, whoever is responsible.

Lastly, and further to the accusations made in your letter of August 10, please note that:

- The request for urgent provisional measures files by Ching-Kuo Wu and the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association have also been fully rejected, this notwithstanding the serious and libellous content of its allegations;

- The only reason for which the IMC has not gone through to implement the EC’s decisions of July 2017, despite your rejection, is only to (i) respect the judicial path and (ii) avoid engulfing AIBA in further mayhem, this although you are currently doing exactly that and endangering AIBA’s existence;

- The "Avis de transmission" you have attached to your letter does not show anything close to the initiation of criminal proceedings by the Prosecutor, but only that your complaint (addressed to the Chief Prosecutor) has been transferred to the Lausanne Public Ministry as part of his jurisdiction - asserting that this is the "initiation" of criminal proceedings is false and misleading, just as all of your other claims;

- All of the IMC’s acts and contacts are solely aimed to better understand the current situation within AIBA and investigate the strong suspicions of wrongdoings, which is all the more central that you are blocking every single possibility for AIBA and the EC to proceed to such investigations.

To conclude, it is clear that any further wrongful accusation or insult towards any member of the IMC or the EC, as well as towards any representative of an AIBA National Federation, shall be met with the adequate judicial response. We had wanted to avoid any act that would be putting such an additional negative light on AIBA, but your actions cannot continue unanswered, especially as they are endangering AIBA.

Yours sincerely,

Franco Falcinelli IMC Chairman Pat Fiacco Member, Terry Smith Member, Mohamed Moustahsane Member, Alberto Puig De la Barca Member, Ted Tanner Member

cc: AIBA Executive Committee Members AIBA National Federations AIBA Disciplinary Commission

August 12 Statement of AIBA’s President

Members of the so-called IMC has sent a letter on 12 August 2017, which contains extremely serious accusations against AIBA’s Executive Director, Mr. Louis-Marie. Those accusations are entirely false and strongly disputed by AIBA.

This letter follows obviously the filing by AIBA of a criminal complaint against the members of the so-called IMC for reasons that have been explained in a letter sent by AIBA’s Executive Director on August 10, 2017. I would like here to emphasize that I, as AIBA’s President and legal representative, have signed the criminal complaint and not AIBA’s Executive Director, as the so-called IMC indicated incorrectly. I would like to strongly disapprove and regret that the so-called IMC has decided to escalate the current dispute by making unjustified personal attacks against an employee of our Association.

Furthermore, the so-called IMC has taken the « decision » to suspend the AIBA’s Executive Director. Such decision is unlawful and will not be applied for the following reasons. First, it is in clear breach of the procedural rules applying to a suspension, as clearly stated in AIBA’s Statutes and Bylaws and by law. Second, it is groundless and has been taken obviously on the basis of wrong assumptions, including the assumptions that AIBA’s Executive Director would have personally filed a criminal complaint against the so-called IMC, which is inaccurate. Thirdly, given the severe doubt as to the validity of the setting up and the powers granted to the so-called IMC and the possible collusion of all or certain of its members with third parties hostile to AIBA (In particular Mr. Ho Kim), AIBA can only wait for a court decision before giving any credit to any decision of the IMC, all-the-more if this decision appears to be in breach of AIBA’s Statutes and/or the law. I am confident the Swiss court will look carefully at all the evidences and further take its decision for the best interests of our sport, its staff and its stakeholders.

Reported by Ed Hula.