Athletes cast shadows during the men’s 5,000 meter, round 1 race during the Paris Summer Olympic Games in 2024. Thursday, World Athletics announced employees stole $1.73 million from the organization, which governs track and field. File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo
The international governing body for athletics, World Athletics, announced Thursday that it discovered “systematic theft” by two employees and a consultant after an internal audit.
One of the employees had previously left the organization, but the second employee and consultant were terminated after the alleged theft was discovered, a press release said.
World Athletics is formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation. It’s the international governing body for track and field, cross-country running, road running, race walking, mountain running and ultra running. It’s based in Stockholm, Sweden.
The alleged theft, which totaled just over $1.73 million over a period of several years, was discovered by World Athletics’ finance department during its first auditing process under a new financial leadership team.
“Unfortunately, corporate theft happens in organizations around the world and across all industry sectors at different levels,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a statement. “The most important thing is to identify it, review how it was able to happen and then introduce new processes and enhanced controls to ensure it doesn’t happen again. This is what we have done.”
Detailed reports were prepared and given to the relevant authorities for criminal investigation, the release said.
“We are also determined to recover whatever monies we are able using the full force of the law to do this,” Coe added. “Too many organizations brush incidents like this under the carpet, terminating employment with limited information which allows perpetrators to continue their scams and thefts within new organizations. We are not that type of organization.
“We have built a strong reputation for good governance, transparency and for defending what is right, even if it is sometimes a little uncomfortable. This is uncomfortable, but it is important that we do the right thing.”
World Athletics did an independent forensic accounting review to supplement its own investigation, and no other fraudulent activity was found, it said. A set of enhanced internal financial controls are being implemented to prevent further issues.
