A boxing official described as “one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals” by US authorities has been named interim president of the Olympic sport’s governing body.
The International Boxing Federation (AIBA) said vice president Gafur Rakhimov was promoted on Saturday after the “unexpected resignation” of interim leader Franco Falcinelli.
“Rakhimov has been described as having moved from extortion and car theft to becoming one of Uzbekistan’s leading criminals and an important person involved in the heroin trade,” the US Department of the Treasury said last month when it announced freezing his assets under US jurisdiction.
Still, the long-serving AIBA vice president is set to lead the Switzerland-based organization for the next nine months until a scheduled election in Moscow.
AIBA was “obligated to follow the statutes” requiring the senior vice president to fill any vacancy, executive committee member Pat Fiacco said.
“There is nothing negative that the executive committee can say,” Fiacco said, adding that Rakhimov has “contributed positively” to AIBA.
Rakhimov was last month linked to “Thieves-in-Law” by the US treasury department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said the group “originated in Stalinist prison camps.”
“The Thieves-in-Law has grown into a vast criminal organization which has spread throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe and the United States, engaging in a variety of crimes, such as money laundering, extortion, bribery and robbery,” the office said.
Rakhimov has allegedly supported the criminal group by “providing warning of law enforcement issues, arranging meetings and addressing other problems.”
A federal document said that Rakhimov is resident in Dubai, where AIBA members met on Saturday. The meeting was called to deal with fallout and financial problems from the previous presidency of C.K. Wu, a Taiwanese member of the International Olympic Committee who left office last year.
“We must work closely with national federations and with the International Olympic Committee to restore confidence in AIBA’s financial management and in its integrity,” Rakhimov said in a statement on AIBA’s Web site.
Rakhimov was key to renegotiating a US$10 million loan from the troubled governing body’s main creditor, Benkons.
He was “not aware of any travel issues at this stage” that would prevent Rakhimov working at AIBA headquarters in the Olympic capital in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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