MONTREAL • An investigation into the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has found widespread corruption and dozens of covered-up drug tests, officials revealed on Thursday.

Lead investigator Richard McLaren, whose 2016 report unveiled a state-sponsored doping programme in Russia, said that the probe into the IWF's affairs under former president Tamas Ajan uncovered millions of dollars in missing money and 40 positive doping cases that had been hushed up.

The report accused the Hungarian of instilling an "autocratic, authoritarian" leadership style, which had resulted in "dysfunctional, ineffective" oversight of the sport's governing body.

It added Ajan had used a "tyranny of cash" to control the IWF during his decades-long reign, with the 81-year-old directly pocketing doping fines and regularly withdrawing large sums from the organisation's coffers that remain unaccounted for.

A total of US$10.4 million (S$14.5 million) remains missing, with the report concluding it was "absolutely impossible to determine how much of the cash collected or withdrawn was used for legitimate expenses".

"Everyone was kept in financial ignorance through the use of hidden bank accounts," McLaren said. "Some cash was accounted for, some was not."

The Canadian added the probe had also found 40 positive drugs cases buried in IWF records, indicative of the "culture of doping" that exists within weightlifting.

In addition to financial and doping irregularities, the McLaren report also uncovered corruption in the IWF's appointments process.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE