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IOC execs to testify at bribey trial
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have asked two IOC executive board members to testify at the bribery trial of Salt Lake's bid leaders. The witness list includes Anita DeFrantz, the highest-ranking American on the International Olympic Committee, and Canadian Richard Pound, whose internal investigation into the bid scandal ended with a purge of 10 IOC members. "My attorney has been contacted by them," DeFrantz, referring to prosecutors, said Thursday from the sports foundation she runs in Los Angeles. "I will testify truthfully and willingly." Efforts to reach Pound, a Montreal tax lawyer, weren't immediately successful. He did not return a phone message left for him by The Associated Press. DeFrantz and Pound are among five candidates for president of the IOC. The election will be held in Moscow on July 16, the same day the Salt Lake trial opens with jury selection. In Salt Lake City, U.S. Justice Department attorney Richard Wiedis is preparing trial subpoenas and making courtesy calls to his witnesses. He wouldn't reveal the full list, which must be turned over to defense lawyers by July 2. Wiedis didn't dispute that DeFrantz and Pound will testify, saying Thursday there was no reason to doubt it. It would hardly be surprising. DeFrantz and Pound spoke to government investigators and can testify about IOC rules for cities competing to host the Olympic Games, such as the $200 gift limit for IOC members. Lawyers for Salt Lake bid chief Tom Welch and his deputy, Dave Johnson, will argue those rules were widely ignored. Pound could review his IOC investigation, which led to the expulsion or resignation of 10 members and reprimands for others. DeFrantz, first vice president of the IOC, could come under aggressive questioning by defense lawyers. Johnson has asserted she kept close tabs on the Salt Lake bid and knew that the wooing of IOC members involved scholarships for their children and lavish gifts. "My response is that was simply not true and he knows it's not true," DeFrantz said Thursday. "The guy was trying to shift blame." Still, defense lawyers could question DeFrantz about an internal U.S. Olympic Committee report submitted to Congress. The report said DeFrantz, upon joining the IOC in 1986, learned from other members she had just missed the "big birthday party" -- a reference to the hordes of gifts bestowed on IOC members by Barcelona and other cities vying for the 1992 Summer Games. Welch and Johnson each face 15 felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and racketeering. They are accused of plying IOC members with $1 million in cash, first-class travel, scholarships and expensive gifts, and not telling their board of trustees about it. The IOC's other candidates for president are Jacques Rogge of Belgium, Pal Schmitt of Hungary and Un-Yong Kim of South Korea, who disputes an IOC reprimand for his son's role in the Salt Lake scandal. John Kim was indicted on U.S. charges of immigration fraud for taking a job secretly funded by the bid committee to qualify for a green card. Prosecutors say it was part of a Salt Lake effort to influence the senior Kim, who disavowed any knowledge of the affair. The younger Kim left for South Korea before his indictment and is a fugitive.
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