Everyone who has ever watched a program on the sporting channel ESPN knows that they have thousands of employees on the payroll and occasionally do a “little housecleaning” by laying off some of the better known names.

So what would possess such a long standing company to enter FAKE NAMES on for awards nominations???

But, that is apparently what was done and now dozens of those previously awarded Emmy’s will have to be returned.

Allegedly the scheme was to submit a fake employee on the entry list and if the program won the award, the fake name would be removed and replaced with the name of the on-air talent who was not eligible to be nominated for the award.

The alleged fraudulent activities date back all the way to 1997.  ESPN acknowledged that the practices “were clearly wrong”.

Apparently the individuals who ultimately received the awards had no knowledge of the fraudulent activates.

A spokesperson for ESPN issued a statement saying, “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 recognize 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.”

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences – NATAS – who is in charge of the Emmy Awards discovered the fraudulent activities and launched an investigation into the matter; and finding “several fictitious credits” that had been submitted by ESPN in multiple categories.

Once discovered, ESPN also launched an investigation into the matter.

A spokesperson for NATAS issued a statement saying, “when brought to the attention of ESPN senior management, the network took steps to take responsibility for the actions of its personnel, to investigate thoroughly, and to course correct.  These steps have included the return by ESPN of statuettes issued to fictitious individuals and commitments to implement further internal accountability and procedural changes at the network.”

Along with returning the Emmy’s, ESPN stated that the individuals who were responsible for the fictitious entries have been punished, but gave no specifics as to exactly what that “punishment” was.