Bolivian tennis official Percy Flores has been found guilty of multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has suspended white badge umpire Flores for 12 years and issued them with a $15,000 fine.
This comes after the tennis official was found to have committed 31 breaches of the TACP over the course of almost a year, between November 2021 and October 2022. Flores has not contested the ITIA's charges.
Official had been manipulating scores
The ITIA states on its website that Flores' breaches of the TACP included regularly manipulating scores for betting purposes by entering the wrong score into the umpire's handheld device.
This was done at
ITF World Tennis Tour Events, and it was also discovered that Flores had solicited another official to engage in acts of corruption.
The Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Professor Richard McLaren declared that Flores' conduct was worthy of a 15-year suspension, but that his early admission of the charges against him and his good behavior throughout the investigative process had caused the sentence to be reduced by three years.
Reminder of a problem in the sport
The suspension will last from the start date of Flores' provisional suspension on 8 December 2022 until 7 December 2034. During this time, the umpire will be unable to attend any event authorized or sanctioned by tennis' governing bodies.
This scandal is another reminder that corrupt conduct is still very much alive in the sport that the BBC once described as "riddled with corruption."