Gafur Rakhimov
Gafur Rakhimov is an Uzbek businessman and sports administrator who is the President of the International Boxing Association. He has been Vice President of AIBA since 1998.
Rakhimov was born July 22, 1951 in Tashkent. He took up boxing as a youth and later moved on to coaching. After Uzbekistan's independence in 1991, he set up several commercial enterprises, which included trading in both raw materials and finished consumer goods. He also became a prominent figure in Central Asian boxing. In 2001 and 2005 he was elected Vice-President of the National Olympic Committee of Uzbekistan.
His critics claim he has ties with organised crime, though no proof has been provided. In 2012 the US Department of the Treasury put financial sanctions on Rakhimov and several other individuals, accused of being part of the so-called Brothers' Circle criminal organization. Nevertheless, Rakhimov has never been charged with any crime in any country. He has won defamation suits at the high courts in Britain, Australia and France.
