Favors for Sale--On Tape

On May 19, 1997, FBI agent Theresa Reilly approached Doug Beavers, International Boxing Federation ratings committee chairman, in front of his home in Virginia. Beavers had responsibility for issuing the ratings that determine the economic future of fighters.

Reilly identified herself and dropped a phrase from an incriminating phone conversation Beavers had six months earlier with a boxing promoter, who taped the conversation.

"I'm investigating corruption in boxing," Reilly told Beavers.

"What took you so long?" Beavers responded, meaning, What took the FBI so long to realize he was corrupt?

Beavers, who was the bagman for former IBF president Robert Lee, quickly agreed to become an informant for Assistant US Attorney José Sierra, who was based in Newark. Once a month, starting in 1985, Lee--an ex-cop--came to Virginia to meet Beavers in hotel rooms, collect his share of the bribes and make up the ratings based on who paid. Fighters who were qualified on merit were kept out of the rankings if their promoter or agent didn't pay. Fighters who left Don King were dropped from the ratings, while fighters who signed with King went up.

When heavyweight Michael Moorer filed a civil RICO suit against the IBF, he was excluded from the ratings as punishment, even though he was one of the best in the world and a former IBF champion. It was Moorer's lawsuit that had triggered the US Attorney's probe, and it was the IBF rating of King's fighter Frans Botha above Moorer that had triggered the lawsuit.

After Beavers became a cooperating witness, he helped the prosecutors make about 200 hours of undercover video and audio tapes. In November 1999, Lee; his son, Bob Lee Jr.; and 85-year-old IBF official Bill Brennan were indicted on thirty-two counts of racketeering, fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and tax evasion, in the US district court in northern New Jersey. In grand jury testimony leading up to the indictment, promoter Bob Arum (a former federal prosecutor himself in the 1960s) admitted paying $100,000 to get the IBF's sanction for a George Foreman match. New Jersey promoter Dino Duva admitted paying a $25,000 bribe. Promoter Cedric Kushner admitted paying $100,000 in bribes. The indictment accused Lee of taking a total of $338,000 in payoffs to manipulate the rankings. Don King was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator." The prosecutors hoped to turn Lee into a witness against King, but that never happened.

The fifteen hours of undercover videos that I viewed reminded me of Hannah Arendt's famous phrase "the banality of evil." The conversations between Lee and Beavers are tedious--except for Lee's requirement that Beavers provide him with prostitutes from Norfolk whenever he came down for a visit, especially a "long-legged one" that Lee was partial to, after divvying up the payoffs.

In an interview this summer, Beavers told me, "I don't regret becoming a government witness. A big reason I did it was that Lee didn't know anything about boxing or care about the fighters. It was just a business to him."

On the tapes Lee used a simple code. Don King was always referred to as "Fuzzy" or "Fuzzy Wuzzy." Cedric Kushner was always "The Fat Man." The bribe money was called "turkey" or "stuffing" or "ginseng."

One King boxer, who hadn't won a match in three years, was placed in the ratings by Lee, even though Beavers had never seen him fight. When Beavers asked Lee about this idle tiger's credentials, Lee explained: "One of Fuzzy's guys."

All through 1998 Lee insisted to Beavers that Henry Akinwande--under contract to King--be kept high up in the heavyweight rankings, even though he hadn't boxed in more than a year because he had a case of hepatitis C. In our interview Beavers told me, "King was also the reason we kept rating Frans Botha a top heavyweight. He did not deserve it."

Watching these payoff tapes makes your heart go out to all the honest fighters without any corrupt connections. They keep getting excluded from the fraudulent listings. They train hard, fight fair and then get cheated out of economic opportunities because they have no bribe-payer in their corner. Boxing corruption is not a victimless crime. A number-one ranking has an economic value because it eventually guarantees a title fight as the "mandatory challenger."

In the most graphic of the undercover videos, recorded on December 18, 1998, in a Portsmouth, Virginia, hotel room, Beavers arrived with the payoff money taped to his leg in a plastic bag.

"Christmas cheer," Beavers said as he handed the cash to Lee.

"How much is this?" asked Lee.

"This is $5,000," Beavers answered.

On the tape you can see Lee sliding the money into the pocket of his suit.

Despite this overwhelming evidence of bribery, the jury convicted Lee only of money laundering and tax fraud. But that was enough for the judge to sentence Lee to twenty-two months--without parole--this past February 14.

Doug Beavers is now operating a gym in Portsmouth. He told me, "It only takes one person to corrupt the whole sport, because then everyone else starts paying bribes, just to keep the playing field level."

Cedric Kushner now says, "I understood. I paid. I was extorted. That's how it works."

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