SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has banned Heriberto Morales Churata from the sport for six years following multiple breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP).
The Bolivian tennis chair umpire was found to have manipulated scores for betting purposes by incorrectly entering scores into the handheld device at ITF World Tennis Tour events in 2021 and 2022.
Churata – who was also a green badge official – has also been fined $10,000 in addition to the ban.
The case was dealt with under the 2023 TACP ‘agreed sanction’ framework, which allows for a sanction to be issued by the ITIA to the official upon admission of the offences, without the need for a hearing.
The authority reported that the suspension was backdated to the start of Morales Churata’s provisional suspension on 8 December 2022, and will end on 7 December 2028.
“During this time Morales Churata is prohibited from officiating at or attending any tennis event authorised or sanctioned by the governing bodies of tennis,” the ITIA concluded.
In January, along with Morales Churata, the ITIA also suspended Bolivian tennis chair umpire Percy Flores as he also awaited the full consideration of TACP.
In March, the organisation also announced that it had suspended both Nastja Kolar and Alexandra Riley.
The players’ suspensions were provisional, pending decision on sanction, after being found to have committed 25 and 15 breaches respectively of the TAPC between 2015 – 2020.
