The chief executive of USA Badminton, the sports Anaheim based national governing body, has resigned amid a dispute with the organizations board of directors over financial transparency, and with the U.S. Olympic Committee threatening to strip the group of its national governing body status, the Orange County Register has learned.
Jeff Dyreks surprise resignation came as the dispute between USA Badminton and the USOC over the future viability of the NGB was escalated Friday by the USA Badminton board chairmans demand that the USOC fire three of its top officials.
USA Badminton chairman Ben Lee, a 1992 Olympian, also accused the USOC of a “cover up” and supporting Dyreks refusal to comply with repeated requests to supply the board with receipts and other financial records, according to a letter sent Friday and obtained by the Register.
The USOC in an April 15 letter formally notified USA Badminton that it would be appropriate to decertify USA Badminton because of the “severity” of its continued deficiencies regarding athlete safety, financial and accounting practices and governance.
USA Badminton has until July 15, 2019 to make a series of wide ranging reforms or the USOC will begin proceedings to strip USA Badminton of its NGB status.
“The required reforms for USA Badminton to remain a national governing body are spelled out in our letter to leadership and speak for themselves,” Mark Jones, USOC vice president for communications, said Friday.
The USOC has sent similar letters to USA Boxing and USA Diving in the last 10 months. USA Boxing has implemented a series of reforms. USA Diving is in the process of making the changes requested by the USOC.
The USOC demanded USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny resign in March 2017 following reports that Penny and other officials at the NGB covered up allegations of sexual abuse against U.S. womens national team physician Larry Nassar. USA Gymnastics board complied with the USOC request and forced Penny out. USA Gymnastics also complied with a subsequent USOC request that it remove its entire board of directors.
In the face of continued dysfunction at USA Gymnastics, including a revolving door of CEOs and other top officials, the USOC began the decertification process against the NGB. The USA Gymnastics decertification process has been put on hold because of the NGBs bankruptcy proceedings.
“At the urging of Congress and our critics we have a more aggressive stance in terms of oversight” of NGBs, Jones said.
USA Badminton board members have expressed concerns about the transparency of the organizations finances under Dyrek since receiving an invoice on Feb. 22 from the USOC to recoup a $123,821 grant to hire a national team coach in 2018.
Dyrek, a former USA Water Polo director of marketing, did not respond to requests for comment.
“In order to pay this invoice, both the finance committee and I have requested financial information from CEO Dyrek, who has refused to supply the financial information requested to the finance committee,” Lee wrote Hirshland. “This lack of transparency is counter to everything you have publicly stated, and the USOC through Rick Adams appears to support the CEOs position to refuse financial transparency to me and our finance committee. Jeff Dyrek refuses to turn over credit card statements and check receipts for his spending on behalf of USAB for the period 2017 through 2019.”
Lee called for the resignation of Adams, the USOCs chief of sport performance and national governing body services, as well as Denise Parker, vice president of NGB services, and , C. Onye Ikwuakor, the USOCs associate general counsel.
“I feel like theyre threatening us with decertification as a way to force me to back off,” Lee said in a telephone interview.
Ikwuakor was the author of an April 15 decertification letter to Dyrek and Lee .
The USOC gave USA Badminton until July 15 to make a series of wide ranging reforms or the USOC will begin proceedings to strip USA Badminton of its NGB status. Those reforms must include “significant” changes in USA Badmintons staff and board of directors, Ikwuakor wrote.
“At this time, due to USA Badmintons ongoing issues with its operations, culture and governance, the USOC is concerned that USA Badminton may be unable to meet its obligations to its members, including U.S. athletes,” Ikwuakor wrote. “The USOC is also concerned that USA Badminton is failing to conduct itself in a manner that demonstrates it is capable of fulfilling the responsibilities of an Olympic Sports Organization and NGB, as is required by …USOC Bylaws. Given the number and severity of the issues identified by the USOC, it appears that termination of USA Badmintons recognition as the NGB for the sport of badminton in the United States may be appropriate at this time.
“However, before resorting to that option, the USOC will provide USA Badminton with an opportunity to address the various issues that have jeopardized its status and relationship with the USOC. Please note that the USOC reserves the right to initiate the process to formally sever USA Badmintons affiliation with the USOC if USA Badminton fails to adopt and implement meaningful reforms to address its problems.”
The USOC said USA Badminton would have to add two “independent” directors to its board, with one of the two taking over as chairman.
Lee in January tried to enlist Hirshlands assistance in a board dispute with former chairman David Simon.
“Without question in my mind your demand letter of April 15th 2019 was a strategic move on the part of the USOC to cover up repeated requests for financial transparency to our CEO Jeff Dyrek,” Lee wrote Hirshland. “I continue to be dismayed by the USOCs handling of our matters and their disregard for our sport and our athletes. When I personally requested your help by email on January 28, 2019, regarding malfeasance on our Board and the former Chair David Simon, who was trying to conduct a Board Chair vote before a new Board member was seated, you replied I am not going to intervene in your board meeting, but now it appears you feel you have the authority to force USAB to violate both our Bylaws and federal law.”
The USOC first raised the possibility of terminating USA Badmintons NGB status last fall after a USOC audit found the NGB had failed to complete criminal background on nearly half the individuals required to undergo such screening under USOC policies.
The USOCs internal audit division found four areas of “high risk” in USA Badmintons Athlete Safety program including failing to conduct required criminal background checks on members, not following SafeSport training requirements, not verifying SafeSport course completion in a timely manner and not requiring background checks or SafeSport training for individuals in “frequent contact with athletes” including medical personnel.
In the April 15 letter, Ikwuakor wrote, “It is with the benefit of the findings from that follow-up audit, together with other information developed by and made available to the USOC over the last several months, that the USOC reached a conclusion as to whether there exist actual or potential issues involving USA Badminton that could materially impact its ability to govern as a National Governing Body (“NGB”) in accordance with the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act (the “Act”) and USOC Bylaws. Based on this examination, it is evident to the USOC that, as discussed in further detail below, serious problems exist with USA Badminton.
“These problems are numerous, but appear to result from (1) a failure to implement necessary operational controls to ensure USA Badminton can manage its day-to-day operations in a consistent and highly professional manner; (2) the actual and/or perceived failure of USA Badmintons Board and officers to act at all times in the best interests of USA Badminton; (3) the lack of a trusting and collaborative relationship amongst the USA Badminton Board and between the Board and USA Badminton staff, (4) a lack of clarity in USA Badmintons governance structure, and (5) the Boards failure to consistently identify andRead More – Source
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