World Athletics reveals Euro 1.5 million theft by two employees and a contracted consultant

New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) In an explosive revelation, World Athletics on Thursday said that it uncovered "a systematic theft of money from the organisation" to the tune of Euro 1.5 million "by two employees and a contracted consultant" over a period of several years.

One of the three left the organisation before the theft was discovered earlier this year, while another employee and a consultant had their contracts terminated following an internal investigation.

According to sources, one of the three under investigation is Vineesh Kochhar who joined World Athletics as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2017.

Kochhar had joined World Athletics from Fidelity Information Services (FIS) based in New Delhi, where he was Asia Pacific CFO with responsibility across the region. He has worked in London, Moscow and Boston.

World Athletics said detailed cases have been prepared and handed over to the relevant judicial and legal authorities for criminal investigation.

"Earlier this year World Athletics uncovered the systematic theft of money from the organisation by two employees and a contracted consultant," WA said in a statement on Thursday.

"While one of the employees left the organisation before their theft was discovered, another employee and a consultant had their contracts terminated following an internal investigation.

"The theft, which totalled just over €1.5m over a period of several years, was discovered by World Athletics’ finance department during the first annual auditing process under a new financial leadership team." World Athletics said it instructed an independent forensic accounting review of the period to supplement its own internal investigation and no other fraudulent activity was found. A set of enhanced internal financial controls are being introduced across the organisation.

Commenting on the theft, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “Unfortunately, corporate theft happens in organisations around the world and across all industry sectors at different levels. 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.

“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.

“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.” PTI PDS PDS BS BS BS