4 hours ago
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World Athletics say they have discovered the ‘systematic theft’ of around £1.3million by insiders.
The federation have disclosed that two former employees and a contracted consultant may now face criminal charges following the discovery via a new financial leadership team, which led to two of the three involved being sacked.
The third person had already left World Athletics, with law enforcement called in.
President Seb Coe said that the organisation was ‘determined to recover whatever monies we are able using the full force of the law’.
He added: ‘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.
‘We are not that type of organisation. We have built a strong reputation for good governance, transparency and for defending what is right, even if it is sometimes a little uncomfortable.
Word Athletics have fallen victim to the 'systematic theft' of $1.75MILLION by insiders
‘This is uncomfortable but it is important that we do the right thing.’
World Athletics said that it brought in an external company to carry out an independent ‘forensic accounting review’ following the discovery, but that ‘no other fraudulent activity’ was found. It will introduce ‘a set of enhanced internal financial controls’ to ‘ensure it doesn’t happen again’.
