World Athletics Scandal: Employees Steal $1.75 Million US

What do Shohei Ohtani, arguably the world’s greatest baseball player, and World Athletics have in common? They could both probably benefit from checking their banking records more frequently.

Earlier this year, Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, was arrested for stealing about $17 million over several years from the baseball star to pay off his gambling debts. Now, World Athletics is dealing with its own systematic theft scheme, albeit valued at only about 10% of the amount stolen from Ohtani.

Following an internal audit conducted earlier this year, World Athletics identified suspicious activity on its accounts dating back several years. Today, they announced through their press release that employees have stolen $1.75 million US in a scheme that lasted years. For reference, they paid out $2.4 million US to the gold medal winners at the Paris Olympics.  

The findings of the audit prompted World Athletics to hand over the case information to the legal authorities in Great Britain and Monaco. Monaco is the headquarters of World Athletics.

As reported by the Associated Press, people close to the case speaking anonymously said that two of the targets of the inquiry are former chief operating officer Vineesh Kochhar and former director of broadcast James Lord.

Kochhar acted as the chief operating officer from 2019 to 2024, while Lord held his position from 2018 until July of this year.

In their press conference, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe emphasized that they would attempt to recover as much of the missing funds as possible, saying:

“We are also determined to recover whatever monies we are able using the full force of the law to do this. 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.”

Not the First World Athletics Scandal

This isn’t the first time World Athletics has been involved in a scandal. Previously, the FBI investigated the decision to award the 2021 World Athletics Championships to Eugene, Oregon over Gothenburg, Sweden, despite strong interest from the Swedish city.

Eugene is famously the head of Nike, a company where the current president, Sebastian Coe, was being paid as an ambassador for £100,000 (About $130,000 US) per year before distancing himself from the apparel company.

At the time, the BBC recovered emails from the then vice-president of World Athletics Coe to the then president of World Athletics Lamine Diack that suggested that he lobbied on Nike’s behalf.

In 2020, Diack was arrested for charges of corruption and money laundering related to the Russian doping scandal. He was found guilty in bribes from athletes caught doping in exchange for covering up test results. He was issued a four-year prison sentence, which he never served. Instead, he was under house arrest in France and released on bail, which allowed him to return to his home in Senegal until he passed away in 2021.

His son was also banned for life from World Athletics (IAAF at the time) for corruption and cover-up related to the scandal, which later earned him 5 years in prison.

After returning to Senegal and invading being arrested by French Authorities, he goaded them by saying, “They can send special forces [to Senegal] to pick me up.”

He’s currently in prison.