Bans were issued to Edvinas Grigaitis, Givi Khudoiani, Arsen Movsisyan, and Manuel Sperger by the independent anti-corruption hearing officer.
Manuel Sperger, an Austrian national-level official, has been convicted of tennis match-fixing in an Austrian criminal court and will serve a ban of seven and a half years from 18 December 2023 until 17 June 2031. He will also pay a fine of $25,000 (£19,708/€22,860), with $18,750 suspended.
Sperger admitted to manipulating scores in 2016 and 2017 for betting purposes. The ITIA charged him with 12 offences under its Tennis Anti-Corruption Programme (TACP), including manipulating scoring data for betting purposes and facilitating wagering.
Edvinas Grigaitis, a national-level official from Lithuania, has received a three-year suspension for breaching the TACP. His offences included delaying or manipulating scoring data for betting purposes and facilitating wagering. Grigaitis was also found to have wagered on tennis matches in which he was not involved. His suspension will run from 15 December 2023 to 14 December 2026.
Givi Khudoiani from Georgia and Arsen Movsisyan from Armenia, both national-level officials, collaborated on manipulating scoring data for betting purposes in matches from 2019 and 2020. Khudoiani committed 15 TACP breaches while Movsisyan committed six. Khudoiani will serve a 14-year suspension and pay a $25,000 fine, while Movsisyan was banned for five years. The two officials have been provisionally suspended since 14 July 2021. Their confirmed bans will end on 13 July 2035 and 13 July 2026 respectively.
All four officials are prohibited from officiating at or attending any tennis event authorized or sanctioned by the members of the ITIA during their suspensions.
The recent bans imposed by the ITIA follow the conviction of Grigor Sargsyan, the leader of a Belgian match-fixing syndicate. Sargsyan was handed a five-year custodial sentence. In total, the ITIA has now banned 20 players and officials in the last three months.
