Wellington (AFP)
The New Zealand government announced on Thursday that it is freezing its financial aid to America's Cup Events Limited (ACE), the company organizing the next edition of the famous sailing event, following suspicions of embezzlement on the part of Team New Zealand.
"It is no longer our intention to make new payments to ACE. We will re-examine our position as the investigation proceeds," said the ministry of enterprise, Innovation and Jobs in a press release.
"ACE and Emirates Team New Zealand support the government's decision to freeze funds until the end of the investigation," replied in a tweet ACE, a subsidiary of Team New Zealand (TNZ), the union winning the latest edition of one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world, in 2017 in Bermuda.
"While regretting this situation, you have no other choice now than to try to resolve it with integrity and transparency," Auckland mayor Phil Goff reacted to New Zealand radio.
The daily New Zealand Herald revealed at the beginning of the week that TNZ was scammed while trying to pay one of its suppliers in Europe and lost track of the money transferred to a bank account in Hungary.
In New Zealand, where sailing is a major sport, the situation of TNZ worries even the government, which has launched an internal investigation into the functioning of the New Zealand union.
To host the prestigious sailing event, from March 6 to 21, 2021 in Auckland Bay, the government and local authorities have already invested 250 million New Zealand dollars (almost 145 M EUR).
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