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Amateur Boxing Federation Votes Against Its President

Ken Belson and

The beleaguered federation that governs international boxing may be headed for a major shake-up.

On Monday, the executive committee members of the organization — which is known as the A.I.B.A. — overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence motion against its president, Ching-kuo Wu of Taiwan, accusing him of mismanaging the federation’s finances.

The vote, taken at a tumultuous meeting in Moscow, was 12-2 in favor of the no-confidence motion, with one abstention.

Wu, who has led the A.I.B.A. since 2006, tried several times to block the no-confidence motion from coming to a vote.

The vote came days after one of the A.I.B.A.’s largest creditors, a company from Azerbaijan called Benkons, said it wanted the organization to immediately repay a $10 million loan, which is four years overdue. The loan is worth more than the A.I.B.A. has in cash on its books, according to financial documents seen by The New York Times. Last week, Benkons said if that the debt was not repaid in 30 days, it would sue the A.I.B.A. to recoup its money. Separately, an investor in the A.I.B.A.’s marketing subsidiary, B.M.A., has asked for the return of his investment, worth about $19.5 million.

The A.I.B.A. has also had to fend off lawsuits from several executives who have been fired in recent years. The organization, which governs amateur boxing worldwide, has spent more than $1 million on legal fees in the past year, its second largest expense after staff salaries.

The organization’s precarious finances and murky governance, which has also raised concerns at the International Olympic Committee, have led several executive committee members to try to oust Wu. At the two-day meeting, which began on Monday, 10 executive committee members asked that three items be added to the agenda, including the no-confidence motion. According to people in the meeting, Wu threatened to call security to have some of the executive committee members removed. The effort failed, and the no-confidence motion passed.

A spokesman for the A.I.B.A. did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.

Some of the executive committee members were also disturbed to learn that Wu, an I.O.C. member since 1988, supported a reduction in the number of men’s weight classes in the Olympics, and that the decision was made by a group that did not include them. Last month, the I.O.C. executive board recommended that the number of boxing weight classes at the Games be reduced to eight, from the current 10, and that the number of women’s weight classes be increased by two, to five.

It is unclear how or how long Wu will fight efforts to remove him. According to the A.I.B.A.’s bylaws, a vote of no confidence by the executive committee members means Wu, the president, cannot act, and that an interim management committee must be formed to take over administrative duties. A successor could be chosen at an extraordinary congress that would be held in the next three months, though some executive committee members could push for an earlier vote, perhaps at the world championships in Hamburg, Germany, at the end of August.

If Wu fails to obtain a vote of confidence from the A.I.B.A.’s members at the extraordinary congress, his duties would be assumed by the top-ranking vice president, Franco Falcinelli.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 12 of the New York edition with the headline: Boxing; Federation Votes Against President. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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