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'I didn't want to pay anymore' Colombian manager says he paid off IBF to get fights
Posted: Wednesday May 31, 2000 04:52 PM
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- After eight years of making payoffs to the IBF to get his South American boxers rated, a Colombian boxing manager decided to stop, he told a federal jury on Wednesday. "My blood was being sucked. I didn't want to pay anymore," the manager, Ivan Feris Chadid, testified in the racketeering trial of IBF founder Robert W. Lee. The IBF's written standards for rankings centered on a fighter's win-loss record and his method of winning, but Feris insisted "the criteria that was always used was the photograph on a $100 bill." Feris said he used checks, as well as cash, to advance nine of his fighters, mostly unremarkable Colombians who fought in the lightest weight classes, from 1989-96. One exception was Mauricio Pastrana, whose rise to two IBF championships was nonetheless greased with payoffs, Feris said. Many of the checks were made payable to the Portsmouth (Va.) Athletic Club, a boxing gym owned by C. Douglas Beavers, the IBF's longtime ratings chairman. The sums were generally about $2,000, the evidence showed. Beavers spent much of April and May testifying against Lee, portraying the IBF ranking system as a cash cow for Lee and himself. Beavers, of Portsmouth, Va., had served as Virginia's top boxing official for 19 years until the state removed him after he took the witness stand. Like Beavers, Feris was granted immunity for his testimony. Both maintained that Don King, boxing's biggest promoter, had special influence with Lee. Lee, 66, of Fanwood, was indicted in November with three other IBF officials, accused of taking $338,000 in payoffs to rig rankings and provide favors since 1983, when he founded the IBF, based in East Orange. As one of boxing's three major sanctioning organizations, its rankings play a big role in determining whom a boxer fights, and his purse. The Feris fighters are among 23 boxers who benefited from payoffs made by seven managers and seven promoters, according to prosecution documents. None of the boxers, managers or promoters have been charged, although prosecutors describe King as an unindicted co-conspirator. King, based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., has denied that. Lee and his son, Robert Jr., 38, of Scotch Plains, are the only defendants on trial. They face multiyear prison terms if convicted on conspiracy, racketeering, fraud and tax charges. Former IBF championship committee chairman Bill Brennan, 86, of Warsaw, Va., past president of the U.S. Boxing Association, a group that became the IBF, was severed from the trial due to ill health. The IBF's South American representative, Francisco "Pacho" Fernandez of Colombia, remains at large. It was Fernandez, said Feris, who told him how to do business with the IBF, and who often served as a courier to deliver payoffs to Lee and Beavers. Feris, 39, who is living in Miami, acknowledged that his letters to Beavers seeking improved rankings did not mention Lee, but said he and Beavers understood that any moves were already cleared with Lee. "He's the chief; he's the boss, and not one piece of paper moves in the IBF without him knowing," Feris said. Defense attorney Gerald Krovatin asked if all payoffs were made on Lee's orders. "You said it, sir," Feris replied through a Spanish translator. Feris also told the jury how he paid $2,000 in 1994 to have Pastrana enter the IBF mini-flyweight rankings and soon become the No. 1 contender, and $2,000 in 1995 to have him get that spot in the junior-flyweight division. Pastrana, managed by Feris and promoted by King, won the IBF title in that division in January 1997, defeating champion Michael Carbajal. The organization stripped him of the belt in May 1997 after Pastrana missed the weigh-in for his first defense, against another King fighter, Manuel Herrera. Pastrana wanted to leave King, according to Feris, who wanted the IBF to restore his title. At the IBF convention later that May, Lee and Brennan told Feris to deal with King, Feris said. Feris approached King by an elevator. "In a loud voice and in everyone's presence, he said that the only way he could help me with the Pastrana case is if I signed over all my boxers," Feris said. Feris sued the IBF, and won a court-ordered bout in which Pastrana prevailed. The suit was not dropped, however, until Feris signed over his fighters to King in 1998. In return, King told Lee, with Feris listening on speakerphone while in King's office, "We are going to help him with all his fighters." Pastrana now fights in the bantamweight division. The Lee trial, now in its seventh week, is expected to last about two more months. In the meantime, a court-appointed monitor is overseeing the IBF, and Lee is barred from participating in IBF affairs.
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