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The recent accusations that Azerbaijan transferred several million dollars to the World Series Boxing (WSB) in exchange for a guarantee that the Azerbaijani boxers would win two gold medals at the London Olympic Games, have led to indignation from Baku and denials from the world's Olympic boxing organization. As a result, an ad hoc committee was launched to investigate the allegations, says the journalist Karl Rahder in his article posted at Foreign Policy Blogs.

The allegations were aired by BBC's Newsnight program on Sept. 22, when the AIBA's World Championships and Olympic qualifiers started in Baku. AIBA (the International Boxing Association) is the governing body of Olympic boxing tournaments, and these allegations shocked the boxing of boxing. According to two sources, at least $9 million out of total of $15 million was transferred by a certain Azeri to a Swiss bank account, held by the WSB (an arm of AIBA), in exchange for two Olympic gold medals for Azeri boxers, the BBC report said.

Newsnight relied on charges made by two unnamed individuals as well as email correspondence between WSB's Chief Operation Officer Ivan Khodabakhsh and an official in the government of Azerbaijan. A copy of an email message sent by Khodabakhsh to an official in Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan refers to a previous meeting between Ho Kim, WSB Chief, and the Minister Kamaladdin Heydarov. WSB claims that the Minister of Emergency Situations Heydarov acted on behalf of an unnamed Azerbaijani businessman. In any case, the funds arrived just as the WSB had run into financial difficulties in USA.

Rick Orosco, one of the managers of Los Angeles Matadors team, insisted in a conversation with the author of the article that there was nothing to all the allegations on corruption in WSB, and that the accusations were made by a former LA team general manager Jeff Benz, a well-known lawyer, who was fired due to a conflict with Ivan Khodabakhsh. Benz appeared in BBC's Newsnight program, in which he alleged that the cash infusions from the mysterious Azeri made him suspicious.

“It made me wonder if what the AIBA folks had told me was true, that there were links to the Azerbaijan government, what they were expecting to receive out of this, because people, in my experience, governments or individuals, just don’t give money away, especially on the magnitude of ten to fifteen million dollars without some sort of expectation of quid pro quo or a promise”, he said.

The AIBa representatives denied all the charges on the deal with Azerbaijan, calling them “preposterous”. However, as the author notes, AIBA has compromised itself by appointing a special committee to investigate the bribery facts. It's hard to imagine that AIBE would pursue a thorough investigation, given the close relationship between the AIBA and its offspring WSB, says the article. All five members of the special committee are either in very close ties with AIBA, or are its staffers, including the legal counsel of AIBA and the chairman of the committee, Tom Vigrets.

Turns out that AIBA is investigating AIBA. The author of the article expressed astonishment that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it would wait for the conclusion of AIBA's internal investigation before launching its own.

As the article says, the best way for Ivan Khodabakhsh to clear his name (and for Heydarov to refute allegations that he may be complicit) would be to demand an independent investigation comprised of people who have no ties to AIBA, or WSB, ideally with the power of subpoena in Switzerland, the US, and Azerbaijan. The investigative committee, which represents AIBA, an organization closely related to WSB, may lead to a conflict of interests, and the “not guilty” finding will leave many unconvinced, the author notes.

Noteworthy, that in April, Eric Parthen, one of the employees of the Association of Boxing in the United States, filed a lawsuit against the chiefs of the Association, accusing them of not paying the amount of $15 million in three cash payments of $5 million dollars to the teams during 2010-2011. This may be an indirect confirmation that the association could use the money from a mysterious Azeri investor to solve their problems.