by Thinus Ferreira
After an investigation ESPN (DStv 218 / StarSat 248) has been forced to return 37 Emmy awards it acquired through fraud in which ESPN used fake names to enter for the American television awards.
The Atlantic reports that America's National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Natas) that runs the Emmys did an investigation and uncovered a fraudulent scheme where by ESPN since 1997 made fake Emmy entries, using the initials of real ESPN staff but different names, then took those fake awards and re-engraved the Emmys with other names.
Natas uncovered the ESPN fraud and demanded that ESPN return the Emmys after it did a verification process in 2022 and ESPN was asked to verify certain names which ESPN had to admit were all fake.
How ESPN's afraid worked is that executives would enter for Emmys in categories but would then add multiple fake names to group entries.
If a group won, ESPN executives would use those "additional" fake Emmy statuettes of non-existent people, re-engrave them and then give them to people who were not eligible to enter as part of groups.
ESPN in a statement says "Some members of our team were clearly wrong in submitting certain names that may go back to 1997 in Emmy categories where they were not eligible for recognition or statuettes".
"This was a misguided attempt to recognise on-air individuals who were important members of our production team. Once current leadership was made aware, we apologized to NATAS for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to safeguard against anything like this happening again."
"We brought in outside counsel to conduct a full and thorough investigation and individuals found to be responsible were disciplined by ESPN."
