The International Amateur Boxing Association have denied "in the strongest possible terms" allegations of accepting a bribe in return for 2012 Olympic gold medals while claiming there is not "any credible evidence" to support the accusations.
The International Olympic Committee have been involved in discussions with the BBC over allegations on Newsnight that large amounts of money were paid out in an attempt to ensure boxers from Azerbaijan received gold medals at the London Games.
The AIBA have put together a 'Special Investigation Committee' after the claims were made on Thursday night's programme, which found payments of millions of dollars from an Azeri national to the AIBA's World Series of Boxing competition.
The money was allegedly in return for guaranteed Azeri gold medals at the London Games, claims strongly denied by the AIBA, who insist that transaction was an above-board loan "which originated from an Azerbaijani private investor".
A statement on Friday night said: "AIBA and WSB deny in the strongest possible terms that they accepted an investment from Azerbaijan in exchange for two gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics - or indeed for any improper purpose.
"The President of AIBA, Dr Ching-Kuo Wu has announced the establishment of the AIBA Special Investigation Committee to investigate allegations made on BBC Newsnight.
"While this exemplifies AIBA's zero tolerance attitude to corruption and absolute commitment to ensuring transparency in the sport of boxing, at this stage AIBA is not aware of any credible evidence to suggest that the allegation that WSB's Chief Operating Officer, Mr Ivan Khodabakhsh, promised the award of two gold medals in return for payment is true.
"Ivan Khodabakhsh is a man of integrity and AIBA trusts him and respects his work.
"Mr Khodabakhsh has confirmed to AIBA that he will co-operate fully and freely with the AIBA Special Investigation Committee."
The statement added: "The AIBA Special Investigation Committee will start its work by asking the BBC to send them all the material on which they relied for the purposes of their programme, and they note that the IOC President, Jacques Rogge, has also called for this, which they welcome.
All five members of the committee are AIBA officials.
The statement concluded: "The Chairman, Mr Tom Virgets, will immediately convene the first investigatory meeting at the AIBA World Boxing Championships currently being held in Baku."
Khodabakhsh himself said: "The allegations that have been made against WSB and me are all completely groundless and false. I have never been asked to nor have I ever undertaken anything illegal or unethical in the course of my duties working for WSB."
He added: "I am ready to personally take any possible measures to clear my name and prove that the accusations are false and without any ground.
"As an officer of WSB I have no position in AIBA and I have no involvement in the Olympic Games. It is absolutely ridiculous to even think of me having any possibility of influencing the award of Olympic medals in any way."
An IOC statement this morning said: "We welcome AIBA's announcement of an immediate inquiry into these claims and we await the outcome of their investigation.
"For its part the IOC takes all allegations of corruption very seriously. 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.
"We would also note that the judging process in boxing as in other sports at the Games are transparent and open to public scrutiny - and a number of sports including boxing have made significant changes to their procedures in recent years to deal with any potential issues."
The BBC did not confirm whether evidence had been passed on to IOC officials but a spokesperson told Press Association Sport this afternoon: "We're talking to the IOC at the moment about what we found out."
The allegations come with the world championships - which double as the first Olympic qualifiers - due to begin this weekend in Baku. They were moved to the Azeri capital from their original choice of Busan, South Korea, last year.
The allegations, from an unnamed insider, relate to the financial affairs of the World Series of Boxing, a full-time, salaried tournament inaugurated by AIBA last year - ostensibly to make it more attractive to fighters to stay in the amateur ranks.
AIBA president Wu branded the claims "totally untrue and ludicrous".
Top boxing promoter Frank Warren urged caution over the Newsnight allegations, insisting the programme had failed to come up with proof that the Olympic event was set to be rigged.
A spokesman for the British Amateur Boxing Association, whose team are in the Azeri capital of Baku now, said: "Our boxers and coaches are focused solely on competing at the world championships and will not allow this issue to distract their preparations."
A spokesman for the Amateur Boxing Association of England, which is an affiliate of AIBA, said: "We are surprised by the allegations. We support AIBA's no tolerance position on corruption and its decision to hold an investigation."
Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson described the allegations as "deeply disturbing".