Graf Finds Missing $14.3 Million

A big chunk of Steffi Graf’s missing fortune has been found, and $14.3 million has been deposited with tax authorities, the tennis star’s lawyer said Wednesday.

A week earlier, Peter Danckert said his defense team was trying to locate money that Graf’s father, Peter Graf, reportedly had sent abroad in a series of transfers before his arrest in August.

Danckert, quoted by the German sports news agency SID, said the “largest part” of the missing money had been recovered, and $10.7 million of it had been deposited against future tax bills.

In addition, $3.6 million from Steffi Graf’s accounts was deposited with the authority in Schwetzingen, a city in southwest Germany, which deals with her taxes.

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Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras each gained lopsided victories to reach the third round of the Eurocard Open at Essen, Germany.

Agassi beat Jacco Eltingh of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-4, and Sampras knocked off Stefan Edberg, 6-3, 6-2.

Michael Chang was upset by Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5).

Boxing

British boxing will be the first to introduce compulsory brain scans for fighters in a move aimed at preventing more tragedies in the ring.

Boxing’s critics in England are calling for the sport to be banned in the wake of the latest two tragedies in domestic fights, the deaths of super-bantamweight Bradley Stone last year and bantamweight James Murray 11 days ago.

The British Boxing Board of Control will now require that every fighter undergo an annual brain scan. If problems arise, the boxer won’t get a license to box.

Further measures mandate that weigh-in times be advanced 24 hours to avoid dehydration caused by a fighter’s efforts to make weight, and the suspension period after a fighter has been knocked out will be lengthened from 28 to 45 days.

Jurisprudence

A lawyer for Tommy Morrison posted $1,000 bond for the heavyweight boxer and entered an innocent plea on his behalf on two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery in Jay, Okla.

The plea came one day after prosecutors filed charges alleging Morrison punched one woman and bit another.

Jurors who have yawned and hung their heads during testimony about invoices, voucher numbers, ledgers and accounts sprang to attention when a tape was played of an accountant cursing boxing promoter Don King.

In a trial dominated by facts and numbers, the sound of Joseph Maffia’s voice in the telephone conversation caught the attention of the jury in King’s insurance fraud trial in federal court in Manhattan.

“I’m going to kick your . . . . You understand this?” Maffia was heard telling King in May 1992. One juror chuckled.

The tape was played by King’s lawyer in an effort to discredit the testimony of Maffia, King’s accountant from 1986 to 1991.

King, 64, is charged with nine counts of mail fraud. Each is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

French businessman Bernard Tapie, sentenced to one year in prison on charges of fixing a soccer game, received a recommendation Wednesday that his term be reduced to four months.

On Tuesday, Tapie, the former owner of Olympique de Marseille, admitted meeting with the former coach of another team, but denied asking him to take the blame for conspiring to fix matches.

Miscellany

While his wife was in London denying reports of a divorce settlement, Nick Faldo was in Tulsa, Okla., preparing for the $3-million Tour Championship and asking for a bodyguard.

Faldo announced that he was separating from his wife, Gill, after 10 years. There were published reports that Faldo offered her an $11.8-million settlement, a fact she vehemently denied.

Faldo asked for a bodyguard, and tournament officials made available to him a plainclothes police officer because of “the extra attention that has followed Nick here,” a tour spokesman said.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is prepared to pay for and run the strictest anti-doping program in international sports.

Dick Schultz, the USOC’s executive director, said a new task force he heads would complete the out-of-competition drug-test plan in time to present it to the panel’s board of directors in April.

Rather than ask the 41 sports that make up the U.S. Olympic teams to conduct the tests, the USOC was ready to operate the program and pick up the estimated annual tab of more than $3 million.

Names in the News

Former New York Yankee Joe Pepitone was released from a Queens, N.Y., hospital where he was treated for minor injuries suffered in a drunken driving accident. Pepitone, 55, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after losing control of his car Tuesday in the Midtown Tunnel.