Pound reveals $1 million bribe offer
Posted: Wednesday January 20, 1999 09:55 AM
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Pound sais he was offered the money in connection with a television deal AP |
KITCHENER, Ontario (AP) -- Dick Pound, the IOC vice president leading the organization's investigation into the Salt Lake City scandal, said he once turned down a $1 million bribe.
"I once got offered a million bucks in connection with a television deal," Pound said in a speech Tuesday to area businessmen, according to a report today in The Kitchener-Waterloo Record.
"And I said, 'Please, you don't have to offer me a million bucks. I want to do this because it's right [for the Olympics]."'
The Montreal lawyer refused to reveal details of the incident, saying only that his comment was intended to show the high standards to which IOC members should strive in light of the bribery scandal involving Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
"The key is not that the crisis occurred, but how you deal with the crisis," Pound said. "And I think the actions we're about to take will make it very clear we insist on the same high standards of behavior for ourselves as we do for athletes."
A six-man IOC inquiry is scheduled to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Saturday to decide on recommendations to make to the full executive board.
"I would like to see an ombudsman for every edition of the Games so that the candidate city could in confidence say 'I think so-and-so's hitting on me [for bribes]' or other candidates could say 'I think Toronto's acting improperly,"' Pound said.
He also would like to cut IOC members back to two visits per bidding city, have the IOC handle all transportation for its members and create a system to have just two final candidate cities.
"It's a constant work-in-progress," said Pound, adding the IOC's investigation should encompass bids going back to the 1996 Atlanta Games.
"We started with Salt Lake because that's where we had the smoking gun.
"For us to then say, 'Thank God, we've dealt with Salt Lake, it never happened before and never happened since,' doesn't seem to me to be credible. So I think we should go back to these previous bids."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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