Panel report targets bid process
IOC investigators to recommend implication, expulsion of some members
Posted: Wednesday January 13, 1999 10:15 PM
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Garff said the SLOC ethics panel has identified eight IOC members who could be implicated AP |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee says
it has enough evidence to complete its bribery investigation and
will recommend expelling some members and changing how cities are
awarded the Olympics.
Robert Garff, chairman of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee,
said the SLOC ethics panel has identified eight IOC members who
could be implicated. SLOC member and IOC executive Anita DeFrantz
has said as many as a dozen IOC members could be ousted.
Meanwhile, an Olympics official in Australia has questioned how
much enthusiasm the IOC investigators have for uncovering
wrongdoing by their members.
The report by the six-member IOC commission investigating
bribery allegations in Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002
Winter Games will be published Jan. 24 after a meeting of the IOC's
executive board in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The commission has identified improper behavior by certain IOC
members with respect to the Salt Lake City bid," the IOC said
through its newly hired New York public relations firm, Hill and
Knowlton.
The IOC sent letters this week to members implicated in the
investigation, demanding an explanation. IOC president Juan Antonio
Samaranch has said guilty members would be expelled or asked to
resign.
The report also will include recommended changes in the bidding
for Olympic Games and the IOC election process.
Meanwhile in Sydney, Bruce Baird, the New South Wales
government's Olympics Minister at the time of the 1993 bid process,
said he's prepared to name people who sought bribes from him while
claiming to represent IOC members. He said the IOC has ignored his
offer.
"I think they're trying to limit it to Salt Lake City. They
haven't approached me, it may be useful if they did." Baird said
Tuesday.
Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper later said he spoke to Baird
and asked him to write down what happened "and I'll use that as
part of the process we're going to have when I get back to Lausanne
next week."
Baird said Wednesday that he has given a statement to Gosper
claiming that one IOC member and an intermediary made approaches
seeking cash in exchange for votes for Sydney's bid, the Australian
Broadcasting Corp. reported.
In other developments Tuesday:
- SLOC canceled its Thursday meeting because the committee's
ethics panel isn't ready to report results of its investigation.
Whether that takes "two days or 20 days, I don't know," Garff
said. "I don't want to pressure the ethics committee because I
want its report to be as thorough as they want it to be. That's why
I didn't reschedule the meeting."
- Vicki Varela, spokeswoman for Gov. Mike Leavitt, said the SLOC
ethics panel has not confirmed accusations that female escort or
prostitution services were provided to visiting IOC members.
- Organizers indefinitely postponed the unveiling of Salt Lake's
official mascot. The unveiling was to have been Feb. 8.
"We want to introduce the mascot for 2002 in an atmosphere of
community celebration. This is not the appropriate time," said
Shelley Thomas, SLOC senior vice president.
- David Johnson, the SLOC executive vice president forced to
resign Friday because of his prominent role in the bid process, was
accused of attacking a TV crew on his doorstep Monday. Johnson, who
apologized to the crew, has an unlisted phone number and could not
be reached for comment. No charges were filed.
- Pirjo Haeggman, an IOC member from Finland, denied any
wrongdoing and said she had no intention of resigning in the wake
of reports her ex-husband had worked for Salt Lake's bid committee.
The New York Times reported Haeggman's former husband worked
briefly for the bid committee on an environmental study.
The couple divorced in 1995 and Haeggman now works for the
Helsinki committee bidding for the 2006 Winter Games.
- IOC member Agustin Arroyo of Ecuador denied wrongdoing. He said
from Guayaquil that his stepdaughter, Nancy, had worked briefly for
the Utah state government restoring paintings, but denied she had
also worked for and received scholarship aid from the Salt Lake
committee. The Chicago Tribune quoted former SLOC leader Thomas
Welch as saying he helped fund her education at a school in Texas.
- Chilean Olympic Committee president Sergio Santander denied
receiving any money from Salt Lake and said he had asked SLOC's
investigators for more information.
Santander said he was "deeply upset" about reports that Welch
had given $10,000 to his campaign for mayor of Santiago.
- The Associated Press reported that African Olympic official
Jean-Claude Ganga will fight any attempts to oust him from the IOC.
Allegations against Ganga include accepting a $50,000
payment from Welch, using committee help on a Utah land deal that
netted $60,000 and receiving free medical services for his
mother and himself at Utah hospitals.
Welch said the cash payment to Ganga was to help feed hungry
children in Africa. Ganga has said the real-estate deal was
"normal" and "happened a long time after the vote. Therefore, it
couldn't have influenced me." He said he offered to pay for his
medical treatment in Salt Lake but the costs were covered under an
arrangement between the hospital and the bid committee.
- A senior member of the Toronto 1996 Olympic bid group, who was
not identified, told the Toronto Sun that the bid group was scammed
by corporate members of the International Olympic Committee. The
scams involved various schemes for obtaining airline tickets from
one or more bid committees and then cashing in some or all of them.M
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