IMG wants authorities to conduct an extortion investigation after a lawsuit was filed against the company, reports TMZ. The suit alleges that owner Ted Forstmann gambled on contests involving IMG's clients, including Roger Federer and Tiger Woods.
The celebrity gossip website said it obtained an internal memo to IMG employees that said: "We intend to hand over all of the relevant information to the appropriate criminal authorities and to ask them to prosecute this individual to the fullest extent of the law."
Among the claims is that Forstmann increased his bet on a Federer match from $10,000 to $40,000 based on information from Federer. According to an earlier report from TMZ, that match was the 2006 French Open final, which Federer lost to Rafael Nadal. It is not clear which way Forstmann is alleged to have bet.
Playing in the Shanghai Masters this week, Federer was asked in Chinese about the situation. A translated version of the question and Federer's response is below:
Q. Today many people read the news online the boss of your company has been sued by someone because of his scandal in football [sic] lotteries. In the French Open in 2008 [sic], you played with Rafael Nadal. Some said you provided some information to him before the match. Would you like to clarify this or would you like to give your fans some guarantee?
Federer: "Sure, I'm happy to. If it were a different player, I would hope that it's obviously not true. But because it involves my name somewhere out there, I know it's a 100 percent not true. I'm pretty relaxed about this because I'm for complete honesty for the sport, leave the game better off than when I arrived to the sport, even though it was already a great platform I had. The last thing I would do is harm the sport and create a negative light on our sport.
"So it's disappointing that someone's throwing my name around. I would never do such a thing. My fans know that, the people who know me. Yeah, I have nothing to hide. I'm sorry for those who think there is something to the story, but there's nothing."