The tarnished image of Olympic boxing faced fresh scrutiny yester-day over allegations that multi-million dollar bribes were paid to ensure fighters from Azerbaijan won gold medals at the 2012 Games.

An investigation by BBC’s Newsnight programme alleged that large sums of money were paid by an Azeri national to organisers of the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA)’s World Series of Boxing (WSB).

The money was allegedly paid to secure gold medals for Azeri fighters competing at next year’s Olympics.

AIBA president Wu Ching-Kuo rejected the allegations as “totally untrue and ludicrous” but confirmed the organisation would launch an immediate investigation into the claims.

“I will immediately conduct an investigation into this because there is a zero tolerance policy in AIBA,” Wu said.

“I want you to know how much effort I put in to clean the house. Four vice-presidents, a secretary general, six members of the executive committee, all expelled because of wrongdoing.”

The IOC welcomed the AIBA’s announcement of an investigation.

“For its part the IOC takes all allegations of corruption very seriously,” the IOC said.

“And we would urge the BBC to make any evidence they have available to AIBA and to our Ethics Commission which will then determine if further action is necessary.”

The graft claims emerged as the World Championships – the first Olympic qualifying event for boxing – get under way this weekend in Baku.

The championships were moved to the Azeri capital after being originally awarded to the South Korean port city of Busan.

The BBC investigation, citing an unnamed insider, said the claims involved the AIBA’s World Series of Boxing, a full-time salaried tournament launched last year with the intention of retaining fighters in the amateur ranks.

According to the BBC, the WSB’s chief executive Ivan Khodabaksh had been involved in brokering a deal to secure several million dollars of funding from Azerbaijan in exchange for fixing the boxing competition at the Olympics.