Russian billionaire and Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has been named by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov, after escaping Russia to the U.S., has revealed a Russian doping scandal. Prokhorov was included in his testimony, reports the Wall Street Journal.
According to Rodchenkov’s testimony, Prokhorov paid Russian biathlete Irina Starykh millions of rubles (worth hundreds of thousands of dollars) in exchange for her silence about the doping scheme after she had stumbled upon it.
Starykh, who was caught doping prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics, planned to expose the scheme out of frustration over not being allowed to compete, testified Rodchenkov.
A representative of Prokhorov told the Wall Street Journal that the accusation was “totally irresponsible hearsay.”
Starykh also denied the allegations, telling Russian news agency TASS that “Rodchenkov’s statement that I received some money from Prokhorov is a lie. I didn’t receive any money.”
Prokhorov, who purchased the Nets in 2009, recently agreed to sell a 49-percent minority stake in the team to Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai for $1.2 billion.
As a result of the scandal, Russia has been banned from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and fined $15 million.
