It’s a complete different perspective of the same event, say Lee’s attorneys

Lee, who began the IBF in 1983, and his son are accused of taking $ 338,000 in bribes to rig his organisation’s boxer rankings. King, Arum and former heavyweight champion George Foreman are expected to testify.

“This is not just about the boxers,” assistant US attorney Jose Sierra said. “It’s about boxers who were left behind because their promoters were unwilling or couldn’t pay the bribes.”

Sierra said over the next couple of months evidence will “undoubtedly” show that the defendants “violated their duties by taking bribes and violated the trust of the public.”

Opening arguments were scheduled to start on Friday but were delayed by US District Court judge John Bissell over whether or not conversations secretly videotaped could be used as evidence. He ruled the government made the tapes properly on Monday and they could be admitted.

The 12 jurors will thus be allowed to view FBI videotapes purporting to show Lee sharing pay-off money with a government informant.

King repeatedly denied paying the IBF while Arum, in a sworn statement to prosecutors, admitted funneling money for preferential treatment to his fighters.

In 1995, Arum gave $ 100,000 so that the IBF would sanction Foreman’s title defence against German Axel Schulz. The rival World Boxing Association had stripped Foreman of its crown because he did not fight its top contender, Tony Tucker.

The IBF later stripped South Africa’s Frans Botha of the title he won over Schulz for testing positive for anabolic steroids, an outcome somewhat suspect in light of what has been revealed in the probe for the case.

Sierra’s opening statement lasted two hours. He charged Lee and his son on 32 counts of bribery, including mail fraud, wire fraud and racketeering. He will also try to show that Lee “was engaging and inspired in money laundering.”

Lee, 66, and his son Robert Jr, 38, are the only defendants on terms if convicted.

Lee is represented by defence attorneys Gerald Krovatin and Bob Lombardi while his son is represented by John Demasi.

The entire line of defence revolved around the claim that the word bribery was misused.

“Somebody who calls it a bribe doesn’t make it a bribe. This is a completely different perspective of the same event”, Krovatin said. “This is about people’s different agenda and the perspective they create. There were never bribes involved as we will show you.”

“Lee founded and created the IBF. Anybody who thinks that Lee’s intention was to conduct the IBF as a fraud scheme was wrong. What business does the federal government have to tell Lee how to run a private business?”

Lee Sr was indicted in November 1999 and is currently on a leave of absence as the president and commissioner of the IBF. He is the only African-American presiding of a sanctioning body.

A key witness in the case will be former IBF ranking chairman C Douglas Beavers. Beavers, considered Lee’s close friend for 15 years, began co-operating with the FBI in May 1997. He taped dozens of conversations with Lee. He has been granted immunity by the US attorney’s office as a reward for his co-operation with the authorities.

Defence attorneys are trying to demolish Beavers’ credibility by portraying him as a fraud. “Beavers resented Lee’s generosity and hated him. We will show the two faces of Beavers,” Krovatin said.