Flores committed a total of 31 TACP breaches in a year
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has announced the suspension of Percy Flores, a tennis white badge umpire from Bolivia, for 12 years due to violations of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
The ITIA found that Flores breached the TACP 31 times between November 2021 and October 2022. During ITF World Tennis Tour events, Flores manipulated match outcomes for betting purposes by deliberately entering incorrect scores into his handheld device. He also solicited another tennis official to engage in corrupt conduct.
As a result, Flores was handed a 12-year suspension and a fine of $15,000. According to Anti-Corruption Hearing Officer Professor Richard McLaren, Flores’ violations originally warranted a 15-year suspension. However, mitigating factors such as Flores’ good conduct and admission of guilt led to a reduced suspension.
The suspension is backdated to the start of Flores’ provisional suspension on December 8, 2022, meaning the penalty will expire on December 7, 2034. During this period, Flores is prohibited from officiating at or attending any event authorized or sanctioned by official tennis governing bodies.
Flores’ penalty follows the sanctioning of Mark Philippoussis for breaching betting sponsorship rules in tennis and the lifetime bans issued to Nastja Kolar and Alexandra Riley for multiple TACP violations.
A Breakdown of Flores’ Violations
Flores committed a total of 31 breaches, including:
- 10 counts of directly or indirectly facilitating or encouraging tennis betting.
- 8 counts of deliberately delaying or manipulating scoring data for profit.
- 10 counts of being requested to influence or attempt to influence an event.
- 1 count of failing to report suspicious activity by a covered person.
- 1 count of incentivizing another person to commit, attempt, or conspire to commit an offense.
To protect tennis from fraud, the ITIA has partnered with the International Tennis Federation to launch mandatory integrity education for players with an active Juniors International Player Identification Number.
For further details, refer to the ITIA’s official website.
