office move and certain international relations matters. Duberstein reviewed the claims and found no merit to the allegations.
On Oct. 24, 2002, a meeting was conducted by the Ethics Oversight Committee so that they could review additional allegations concerning Ward. Hernando Mandronero, the former managing director of international relations, and Patrick Rodgers, the former USOC ethics compliance officer, alleged that Ward directed Mandronero around April 2002 to assist his brother, Rubert Ward, with procuring a business arrangement with Dr. Jose Joaquin Puello, president of the 2003 Pan American Games Organizing Committee. The purpose of the meeting was to help Rubert Ward’s employer, Energy Management Technology (EMT), obtain financial assistance to provide microturbines for the Pan Am Games and to help the company maintain its operations in the Dominican Republic. Mandronero’s acknowledgement of making some calls to Rubert Ward was enough to officially get an ethics violation investigation underway.
By November 2002, the internal investigation had been handed over to attorney Fred Fielding of Wiley, Rein & Fielding, who was responsible for conducting interviews and filing a written report with the Ethics Oversight Committee. Just before Christmas 2002, someone leaked to the press that the ethics investigation was underway. Duberstein and members of the committee received reports that Mankamyer was discussing the investigation with people outside of the Ethics Committee. Before Fielding indicated that his written report was ready and the USOC Ethics Committee concluded their findings, Mankamyer scheduled an executive committee meeting for Jan. 13, 2003, to discuss the allegations concerning Ward. This information was leaked to the press. Furthermore, Mankamyer composed what she termed a “100-page comprehensive notebook” detailing the allegations, which she sent to board members in preparation for the Jan. 13 meeting. Copies of the notebook, which contained a 75-page presentation, faxes, e-mails, and other memos that were supposed to support the case against Ward, made it into the hands of several reporters.
In an attempt to defend himself against what he felt was misleading information in the notebook Mankamyer distributed, Ward sent a Jan. 1, 2003, e-mail to executive committee members giving his side of the story regarding the allegations. In the e-mail, Ward stated that he had no financial interest in EMT, that he was not involved in any of the follow-up actions Madronero arranged, and that he did not believe it was a conflict of interest since neither he nor his brother had a financial stake in EMT. Ward does admit, however, that he “made an error in judgment by not disclosing this situation in July in the Annual Disclosure Certification.”
At their Jan. 13 meeting, the ethics committee found that there were no ethics violations, but there was “an appearance of conflict of interest,” for which Ward was stripped of his $184,800 bonus. The committee did have a larger concern with Mankamyer, and she was asked to resign.
“So not only did Lloyd beat the allegations, but Marty ends up getting fired because she did this,” says an insider.” That’s the biggest turnaround you can imagine.” The