Sixth Armenian charged over tennis match-fixing

BRUSSELS, June 14, (AFP): A sixth Armenian has been charged in Belgium with corruption, money laundering and other crimes as part of an international investigation into match-fixing in tennis, Belgian prosecutors said Thursday.

The sixth man was arrested on a warrant issued on Wednesday, a week after the five others, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

“He is charged with corruption, money laundering, forgery, membership of a criminal organisation and violations of the legislation about gambling,” it said in a statement.

Unlike the five others, the Armenian national identified as 32-year-old Karen H. received an additional charge of gambling violations.

The first five accused were among 13 people who were detained in Belgium on June 5 during a series of simultaneous raids also carried out in the United States, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Eight of the 13 detainees were released.

No details have emerged from the other raids which were part of an international probe into an Armenian-Belgian criminal network suspected of bribing players to throw games over the last four years.

Belgian prosecutors said the matches were on the low-level Futures and Challenger circuits, away from the gaze of television coverage and where meagre prize money leaves players susceptible to backhanders.

Prosecutors say the probe showed the criminal network worked to bribe professional tennis players to fix matches and fraudulently boost the winnings of bettors who knew.

Belgian authorities, who were first alerted to suspicious betting activity in 2015, said the criminal network “would not shrink from violence.”

It also used its contacts to move large sums of money abroad anonymously, they added.

In April, the Independent Review of Integrity in Tennis, the London-based global corruption watchdog, warned that the lower levels of the sport were engulfed in betting-related corruption.

The report said the problems stemmed from too many players in the likes of the Futures and Challenger circuits not earning enough to make a living, coupled with the rise of online betting. Hansen, is why last week’s runaway 52-11 over France in Auckland was no indication of how the second Test will pan out.

“We worked that out in half-an-hour sitting despondently in a changing shed in Cardiff,” Hansen said Thursday after naming an unchanged side, referring to the 2007 game.

French coach Jacques Brunel has made five changes and while he downplayed the chance of an upset he said Les Bleus “will not make it easy” for the All Blacks this time.

“We want to win, but first it will be necessary to stem (the All Blacks attack).”

In a loose-forward shake-up, Brunel has rushed Kelian Galletier and Mathieu Babillot into the starting line-up, replacing Judicael Cancoriet and Fabien Sanconnie, while Kevin Gourdon, who started on the flank in Auckland, moves to the back row.

Galletier and Babillot were late arrivals in New Zealand after playing in the Top 14 final between Castres and Montpellier, along with Benjamin Fall, who takes over the fullback role from Maxime Medard.

Gael Fickou comes into the side for injured wing Remy Grosso, who suffered a tour-ending double facial fracture in the first Test.

“We made big mistakes (last week). We cannot do that against the All

Ryan Crotty (left), of New Zealand is tackled by Remy Grosso of France during their rugby test in Auckland, New Zealand on June 9.

(AP)

Blacks,” Brunel added.

However, Hansen said he was trying not to read too much into last week’s result.

“One of the big lessons we learned (in Cardiff) was that if you don’t plan for the unexpected then you’re going to get smacked by it and ever since that day we’ve always expected the unexpected to happen,” he said.

“Whilst it was a painful moment in All Blacks history, particularly for the people involved in it, me being one of them, I think that game has had a significant bearing on what’s happened since.”

New Zealand have played 138 Tests since that fateful day, winning 120 including two World Cups for an 87 percent success rate.

The losses include being beaten by France the next time they met, in Dunedin two years later, but they have won all 12 clashes since.

Despite New Zealand’s dominance over the past nine years, Hansen believed France would take confidence from being ahead until early in the second half in Auckland, before the All Blacks scored two tries while lock Paul Gabrillagues was in the sin bin.