IBF President Pleads Innocent

The head of the IBF pleaded innocent Monday to bribery charges and both the organization and the promoters for Lennox Lewis later said the issue over the sanctioning fee for the undisputed heavyweight champion had been settled.

The lawyer for IBF president Robert W. Lee Sr., said the $300,000 sanctioning fee for Lewis had arrived at the group's East Orange headquarters.

"If the check clears, the IBF will confer the belt on Lewis," said the lawyer, Gerald Krovatin.

Pat English, an attorney for Main Events, the promoter who represents Lewis in this matter, said the check was forwarded to the IBF on Monday after an agreement was reached.

English said the check was made out to "The IBF, a non-profit organization."

Lee, who was arraigned Monday on federal charges he solicited bribes to fix rankings, said his indictment might have prompted promoters of last weekend's fight between Lewis, the WBC champion, and Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, to withhold the sanctioning fee.

English said part of the dispute was that it was revealed in one count of the indictment that the IBF had secretly formed an organization for profit. English said he wanted to make sure the money went to the non-profit IBF.

Lewis will receive the belt by Wednesday, English said.

Lewis scored a unanimous decision over Holyfield on Saturday night in Las Vegas, avenging a controversial draw in March.

Federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Monday asked a judge to freeze two IBF bank accounts. They contend the money must be preserved in case Lee and other IBF officials are convicted and ordered to forfeit $338,000 they are accused of pocketing over the past 13 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Sierra declined to say how much money is in the accounts.

U.S. District Judge John Bissell said he would consider the request at a hearing Nov. 29.

Krovatin would not let his client discuss how a freeze would affect the IBF, which has been under a cloud since the federal grand jury investigation.

Krovatin said Lewis lawyer Patrick English apparently got word of the freeze motion. English denied that and said he wanted to put the sanctioning fee in an escrow account because it is not clear which IBF entity should get the money.

The federal investigation, which led to the 32-count indictment against Lee, began even before a New York state investigation of the judging of the first Holyfield-Lewis fight. The IBF-appointed judge in that bout was the only official to score Holyfield the winner in a fight widely believed to have been won by Lewis.

During the arraignment, Sierra said the evidence against Lee and the others includes several hundred hours of audio and video tapes, mostly of telephone conversations. He declined to say who is on the tapes.

Bissell set a tentative trial date of Jan. 11.

The racketeering indictment, unsealed Nov. 4, charged Lee, 6, of Fanwood; his son Robert Lee Jr, 38, of Scotch Plains, the liaison to the IBF president; former Virginia boxing commissioner Donald William Brennan, 86, a past president of the U.S. Boxing Association, a group which became the IBF; and Francisco Fernandez of Colombia, the South American representative of the IBF.

Lee Jr. was in court Monday and pleaded innocent. Brennan, of Warsaw, Va., pleaded innocent later in the day video hookup. Fernandez remains at large.

The indictment said seven promoters and managers were involved, as well as 23 boxers. They have not been charged, and the indictment refers to them only by number. The investigation is continuing.

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