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| - An investigation into the International Weightlifting Federation found widespread corruption and dozens of covered up drugs tests, officials said Thursday. Lead investigator Richard McLaren said the probe into the IWF's affairs under former president Tamas Ajan uncovered millions of dollars in missing money and 40 doping cases that had been hushed up. McLaren's report accused Ajan of an "autocratic, authoritarian" leadership style which had resulted in "dysfunctional, ineffective" oversight of the sport's governing body. The report said Ajan had used a "tyranny of cash" to control the IWF during his decades-long reign, with the Hungarian boss directly pocketing doping fines and regularly withdrawing large sums from the organisation's coffers which remained unaccounted for. "It is absolutely impossible to determine how much of the cash collected or withdrawn was used for legitimate expenses," an executive summary of the investigation reported. A total of $10.4 million remained missing, the report said. "Everyone was kept in financial ignorance through the use of hidden bank accounts," McLaren said. "Some cash was accounted for, some was not." McLaren, who was also the lead investigator in the Russian drugs scandal in 2015, said the probe had also found 40 positive drugs cases buried in IWF records. "This includes gold and silver medalists who have not had their samples dealt with," the report said. "This information has been passed on to WADA for further investigation." Ajan stepped down as chief of the IWF in April following allegations of corruption made in a documentary by German broadcaster ARD earlier this year. The ARD documentary alleged a "culture of corruption" had been established in the Olympic sport with prominent weightlifters rarely subjected to drugs tests and cash being taken by doping controllers to accept manipulated urine samples. Ajan, 81, who had been at the IWF since 1976 serving 24 years as general secretary and the past 20 as president, claimed the allegations were unfounded. Ajan insisted he had been the victim of "an unjust attack" by ARD. "This film has completely ruined my life and 50 years of my work. A large part of my work has been about doping prevention," he said. rcw/lp
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