The Global Tennis Integrity Agency (GTIA) has prohibited two tennis athletes for their participation with a Belgian criminal organization and for dishonest actions.
Alejandro Mendoza Crespo has been given the maximum punishment of a lifetime prohibition for twenty infractions. Meanwhile, Jorge Panta Errelos has been prohibited for three years for four infractions.
These penalties were determined by independent anti-corruption hearing officer Professor Richard McLaren. The decision was made after formal hearings in early March, with the prohibitions taking effect on April 4.
Mendoza and Panta have also been fined $250,000 (£199,619/€231,942) and $10,000 respectively. Both will be prohibited from taking part in any competition, coaching, or attending any event authorized by GTIA members, including the ATP and WTA.
Last week, Eduardo Agustin Torre was prohibited for five years for thirty-five violations of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). Torre was also fined $35,000.
The GTIA announced that the prohibitions on Mendoza and Panta are linked to a recent criminal case in Belgium, where Grigor Sargisyan, the leader of a match-fixing criminal organization, was sentenced to five years in prison. These new GTIA penalties follow a series of tennis prohibitions related to the criminal organization.
During the eleventh month, seven competitors were prohibited from participating for different durations due to breaches of TACP regulations. These individuals included Alec Witmer, Arnold Grace, Arthur Degriff, Julian Dubai, Roman Barbosa, Maxim Osom, and Omar Salman.
In the Belgian situation, French competitor Lenny Mitjana was barred for a decade due to corrupt practices, while Anis Gorbel was prohibited for three years for manipulating matches.
With the suspensions of Mendoza and Panta, a total of twenty-five competitors and officials have now been prohibited in the Belgian case.
The International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) released its “Integrity Report” for the initial three months of this year in April.
IBIA issued a total of fifty-six warnings in the first quarter, a twelve percent increase from the fifty notifications in the initial three months of 2023, and a sixty-four point seven percent increase from the final quarter of 2023.
There were fourteen warnings related to tennis in the initial three months of this year, a rise of two from the same period last year.
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