There is no crime committed when financial statements and reports are submitted late.
Pole vaulter Ernest John “EJ” Obiena said this even as the Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association created an independent Administrative Committee to look further into the Olympian’s alleged non-payment of his coach’s services.
“PATAFA accused me in writing of committing serious crimes of embezzlement and outright theft of monies intended for my coach Vitaliy Petrov… That’s a long way from embezzlement and theft that I’m accused of. I am not a lawyer. But as far as I know, paying late is not a crime,” said Obiena.
The new body was formed after a four-man investigating panel, which the PATAFA formed last week, continued looking into allegations that Obiena may have falsified liquidation reports and failed to turn over payment for his coach at a specific time.
Liquidation paperwork on the receipt of Petrov’s 85,000 euro funding allocation will be looked into by the administrative panel, which will also review the affidavit of top World Athletics official Sergey Bubka and the written statements of Petrov alleging that he “did not receive any monthly coach’s fees for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021”.
Obiena has already submitted his written explanation to the committee, according to a new PATAFA statement.
While preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, Obiena said he had difficulty with the paperwork and disbursing funds to his coaches.
“I have admitted that I struggle with the huge amount of paperwork that I am required to do to be a paymaster to my team. I am alone in Italy. I train nine hours daily, and I have no help,” wrote Obiena in his statement.
Obiena believes that a helping hand from the PATAFA could have helped him ease that burden.
Based on the records of PATAFA, the coach’s fees of Petrov were released to Obiena from May 2018 up to August 2021.
But the PATAFA acted on a statement signed Petrov, who informed the association that he did not receive payment for his services to the Filipino pole vaulter, now ranked no. 5 by World Athletics.
For now, all funding related to Obiena’s training activities in Formia, Italy has been suspended.
The 24-year-old Obiena admitted in a statement that the liquidation paperwork on the receipt of Petrov’s funding allocation has been submitted late, of which he apologized.