The crisis at the top of amateur boxing's governing body, Aiba, has intensified with those seeking to remove its president, Wu Ching-kuo, telling the Guardian they want him impeached for financial mismanagement.
Members of Aiba’s interim management committee (IMC), which was set up last week following an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Wu, are also going to the Swiss courts on Wednesday to argue the case that they – and not Wu – should run the organisation during the next three months, before an extraordinary congress decides the Taiwanese’s fate.
The Aiba executive committee member Pat Fiacco, spokesperson for the IMC, said: "We are taking legal action against president Wu in order to ensure Aiba funds are protected and are not abused. We have asked the court to ensure the IMC can manage Aiba in the interim period until an extraordinary congress can be held, and that Dr Wu's access to funds is blocked. We fear he may be using Aiba money to pay his personal legal bills.
“This whole process is about impeaching president Wu for what we believe is financial mismanagement of Aiba.”
The move comes in the wake of the Guardian’s revelations last month about Aiba’s financial problems. Not only has the organisation been hit by a demand from the Azerbaijani company Benkons that it immediately repays a €8.5 million loan from 2011, but the Chinese company First Contract International Trade also wants it to pay back a £14.65 million investment into Aiba’s marketing arm, BMA.
Wu has always insisted that Aiba’s finances are on a sure footing, however during Aiba’s executive committee meeting in Moscow last week auditors from KPMG told Wu and other committee members Aiba has negative unrestricted funds of €13.15 million . That is a deterioration from last year, and they cited Benkons’ demand, the poor performance of World Series of Boxing, plus legal and compliance costs, as being significant challenges to its financial outlook.
The interim management committee, meanwhile, has further stepped up the pressure on Wu by sending a letter to every national boxing federation outlining Aiba’s problems. After insisting the sport needs a “clean start” they accuse Wu of “travelling around the world in lavish personal style” and “collecting substantial funds from Aiba for personal use in his Taipei office”.
Last week 13 of the 16 members of Aiba's executive committee supported a no confidence motion in Wu, with two abstentions and only Wu himself rejecting the motion. The Guardian has learned that since then four remaining members of the executive committee, who were absent in Moscow, have supported the motion.
“It is really important to say that we are following the Aiba statutes throughout this process,” said Fiacco. “The president does not have the almighty power to run Aiba. And how can he expect to do so now when 17 out of 20 have no confidence in him?”
Aiba’s offices have been closed for the past few days owing to the dispute, but Fiacco said he hoped the decision by the Swiss courts would allow them to get the organisation back on its feet. “We have the world championships in Hamburg four weeks,” he said. “We have to ensure the local organisation committee in Hamburg and the German Boxing Federation feel they are getting the support they require.”
Wu has frequently denied any allegations of wrongdoing and has dismissed the right of the interim management committee to exist saying it “has no legal foundation”.
Wu has also denied any financial mismanagement and says he needs the 200,000 Swiss francs (€175,000) he gets each year for his office because he is a volunteer who travels more than 200 days a year representing Aiba.
(Guardian service)
