This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/world/americas/brazil-olympic-rio-bribe-investigation.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Home of Brazil’s Top Olympic Official Is Searched in Bribe Inquiry Home of Brazil’s Top Olympic Official Is Searched in Bribe Inquiry
(about 7 hours later)
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Police officials in Rio de Janeiro searched the home of the head of Brazil’s Olympic committee on Tuesday as part of an investigation into allegations that politicians and Olympic officials paid bribes to secure the 2016 games. SÃO PAULO, Brazil — The federal police searched the home of the president of Brazil’s Olympic committee on Tuesday and called him in for questioning as part of a widening investigation into allegations that bribes were paid to secure the 2016 Games for Rio de Janeiro.
The Rio de Janeiro federal prosecutor’s office said the head of the committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, had been called in for questioning. TV Globo broadcast images of the police entering his home on Tuesday morning. Prosecutors at a news conference accused Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the head of the committee, of orchestrating bribes to members of the International Olympic Committee. “He was the bridge that linked the criminal scheme together,” a federal prosecutor, Fabiana Schneider, said.
In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said the operation was being coordinated with French and United States officials. Search and seizure warrants were carried out at the headquarters of Brazil’s Olympic committee and the Rio 2016 organizing committee. At least two arrest warrants were served, according to the statement. Mr. Nuzman spoke with investigators for hours on Tuesday as news footage showed the police at his home in Rio. Outside his residence, Mr. Nuzman’s lawyer, Sergio Mazzillo, told reporters that his client “didn’t participate in any irregularities; there isn’t strong evidence against him.” No charges have been filed against him.
Prosecutors in Brazil have opened corruption investigations into several Olympics-related infrastructure projects. But Tuesday’s developments were the first official sign that Brazil authorities are investigating the possibility that the Olympic bid may have been bought. Rio beat out Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo with its 2016 bid, and became the first South American city to host an Olympics. The selection was hailed as recognition of the country’s growing global clout. Rio was behind Madrid in the first round of voting, but went on to clinch the Games by a vote of 66 to 32 in the third round of balloting.
In June, Sergio Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro State, was convicted of bribery and money laundering involving Olympic infrastructure projects and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Prosecutors in Brazil had already opened corruption investigations into several Olympics-related infrastructure projects. In June, Sérgio Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro State, was convicted on bribery and money laundering charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
But Tuesday’s developments were the first official sign that the Brazilian authorities were investigating the possibility that the Olympics bid itself was tainted by bribes.
On Tuesday, Brazilian and French officials said the police had searched the headquarters of Brazil’s Olympic committee, the Rio 2016 organizing committee and numerous business offices as part of the investigation.
Detention warrants were also issued for the Brazilian businessman Arthur Soares and an associate, Eliane Pereira Cavalcante. The federal prosecutor’s office in Rio requested that one billion reais ($320 million) in assets belonging to Mr. Nuzman, Mr. Soares and Ms. Cavalcante be seized. Lawyers for Mr. Soares and Ms. Cavalcante could not be reached for comment. No charges had been filed against them.
In a statement, prosecutors said they had “vast documentation and robust evidence” that Brazilian officials bribed a former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack.
They said that Mr. Soares, at the behest of Mr. Cabral, deposited $2 million in bank accounts belonging to Mr. Diack’s son just three days before the vote to decide which city would host the 2016 Games.
Ms. Schneider said Mr. Nuzman was “greasing the wheels to organize the payment of bribes from Cabral directly to African members of the I.O.C., which was done via Arthur Soares.” She said Mr. Diack was “influential” with those African members.
“The Olympic Games,” Ms. Schneider added, “were then used as a trampoline to commit Olympic-size acts of corruption, in civil engineering, in infrastructure projects, in the metro.”
The warrants executed Tuesday grew out of an earlier investigation involving Mr. Diack.
Mr. Diack was arrested in France in November 2015 on accusations of taking bribes to cover up failed doping tests by Russian athletes. Evidence gathered by French financial prosecutors in that case led to the discovery of bank accounts that the authorities suspected were used to funnel cash to him in the days before Rio’s successful Olympic bid, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
A company set up in Dakar, Senegal, by Papa Massata Diack, Mr. Diack’s son, received $1.5 million from a British Virgin Islands entity linked to Mr. Soares three days before the vote. At around the same time, the company transferred $500,000 to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack in Moscow, according to those people.
The younger Mr. Diack’s company, Pamodzi Sports Consulting, then transferred $299,300 to a Seychelles firm owned by the former Olympic sprinter Frankie Fredericks on the day of the Rio vote, according to the investigators. Mr. Fredericks was one of three observers of the election. The International Association of Athletics Federations has suspended Mr. Fredericks, who denies any wrongdoing, pending the results of an ethics investigation.
“The I.A.A.F. has and continues to work with the French investigation concerning the activities of the former I.A.A.F. regime,” a spokesman said.
The Rio 2016 organizing committee declined to comment. In a statement, the I.O.C. said it had been “in close contact with the French authorities since the beginning of their investigations into alleged bribery.” It added: “It remains in the highest interest of the IOC to protect the integrity of the candidature process and to address and sanction any infringements.”