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Appointed monitor for IBF acts fast
Posted: Thursday January 13, 2000 04:23 PM
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The court-appointed overseer of the troubled IBF has hired a forensic accountant to review the organization's books, monitor Joseph A. Hayden Jr. said Thursday, a day after being named to the post. "We certainly got fast out of the block," Hayden said after leaving a closed two-hour meeting with federal prosecutors, indicted International Boxing Federation founder Robert W. Lee Sr. and lawyers for Lee and the IBF. Hayden's appointment represents the first time a U.S. sports organization has been subject to a remedy usually applied to mob-riddled labor unions. During a short interview as he left the courthouse here, Hayden said he had no special expertise in boxing, but said he has attended prize fights. A criminal defense lawyer for 30 years and well-known in New Jersey legal circles, Hayden was praised both by prosecutors and the IBF's lawyer. For his part, Hayden said, "It is my belief that all parties will be cooperative with the role of the monitor." His mandate is to ensure the integrity of the IBF's finances and its ranking system, he said. The monitorship was set in motion when Lee and other IBF officials were indicted in November on charges they accepted $338,000 to rig its rankings of boxers. The U.S. attorney's office also sued Lee and the others, seeking to bar them from boxing and requesting a monitor. U.S. District Judge John W. Bissell on Wednesday granted that request, giving Hayden full access to IBF meetings and records, but not the subpoena power suggested by prosecutors. Lee took a leave last month as president of the East Orange-based IBF, which he founded in 1983. Lawyers for Lee and the IBF argued that a monitor was not needed. But Bissell found "ample evidence presented to demonstrate a pattern of illegal activity through the solicitation and receipt of payoffs allegedly for the purpose of fixing rankings or scheduling boxing matches." Lee has pleaded innocent and is to stand trial in the spring on racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion charges. Longtime IBF vice president Hiawatha Knight of Detroit is now serving as IBF president. Rankings play a big role in determining opponents and purses for boxers. Years of questionable rankings by all three major sanctioning bodies have spurred efforts on Capitol Hill for legislation to regulate them. Only the IBF is based in the United States. The indictment said seven promoters and managers were involved in payoffs to the IBF to alter rankings or give favorable treatment to 23 boxers. They have not been charged, and the indictment refers to them only by number.
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