Judgment day
IOC recommends 6 expulsions in Salt Lake bribery scandal
Posted: Sunday January 24, 1999 10:13 PM
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Samaranch announced said that a third IOC member has resigned in addition to the suspensions AP |
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- Olympic leaders recommended the expulsions of six IOC members Sunday in an unprecedented purge linked to the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the games.
The embattled president of the International Olympic Committee said the action was aimed at ending "the ugliest chapter in the history" of the world's biggest sports event, which in the last two decades has also become a billion-dollar business.
As a third member resigned in the scandal, IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said three other members remained under investigation, while a fourth was warned about his actions by the ruling executive board.
"The members violated their Olympic oath an betrayed the confidence put in them by the Olympic family," Samaranch said. "These actions were inappropriate and against the policy of our organization."
One member, Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo, received $226,000 from Salt Lake in cash, medical and travel expenses, gifts and entertainment, according to the IOC report.
Samaranch announced the action at the end of a two-day emergency meeting to deal with a spiraling crisis that started with allegations of bribery in Salt Lake City's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
He said those games would stay in Salt Lake and Sydney would keep the 2000 Summer Olympics, even though the investigation has spread to Australia.
Samaranch said the vote on the sanctions was unanimous and all of the six had been asked to resign because they had done "great harm to the Olympic movement."
"I express my deepest apology to the athletes, the people of Salt Lake City and Utah, the global Olympic family and the millions of citizens worldwide who love and respect the games," Samaranch said.
David Sibandze of Swaziland was the latest member to quit in the scandal, handing his resignation to Samaranch just before the report was released. Two other IOC members resigned last week.
The other six were urged by Samaranch to step down "to put an end to the ugliest chapter in the history of the Olympic Games. ... The greatest service to the Olympic movement is to accept their fate."
Samaranch said the IOC would form an ethics commission and continue the corruption investigation in other cities, going back to the bids for the 1996 Games won by Atlanta. He also said he would send two top officials to Sydney within three weeks to investigate the situation there.
"We will do all that is necessary to preserve the integrity and ideals of the Olympic Games to restore the confidence of the public in the Olympic movement," he said. 'The executive board considers this investigation as a way to put our house in order and take the necessary reforms.
"This is the beginning, not the end of our work. I am determined the Olympic movement will come out stronger from this crisis."
And, while he said he had no plans to resign, he said he would ask for a vote of confidence on his leadership at a special IOC assembly March 17-18, called to consider the executive board recommendations. Until then, the six members will be suspended, Samaranch said.
Dick Pound, IOC vice president and the head of the Salt Lake inquiry, said the investigation and its recommendations dealt solely with Olympic rules.
"We are not accusing any member of corruption or bribery, or suggesting that there was criminal conduct," Pound said. "These members are guilty of breaking the oath they took and bringing the reputation of the IOC into disrepute."
IOC director general Francois Carrard said those members recommended for expulsion were Agustin Arroyo of Ecuador, Jean-Claude Ganga of Republic of Congo, Zein El Abdin Ahmed Abdel Gadir of Sudan, Lamine Keita of Mali, Charles Mukora of Kenya and Sergio Santander of Chile.
Still under investigation were Louis Guirandou-N'Diaye of the Ivory Coast; Kim Un-yong of South Korea and Vitaly Smirnov of Russia, Carrard said.
In addition, he said, Anton Geesink of the Netherlands had been issued a warning.
Members who resigned last week were Pirjo Haeggman of Finland and Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi of Libya.
Rene Essomba, an IOC member from Cameroon who died last year, also was mentioned in the investigation's findings. It was news that his daughter, Sonia, had received a scholarship from the Salt Lake bidders to attend American University that touched off the scandal.
The IOC also had been expected to announce changes in the Olympic host city selection process. But it limited action for the time being to the choice for the 2006 Winter Games, to be made in June.
Carrard said visits by members to the six bid cities would be banned and leaders of the bid cities would be prohibited from visiting the committee members.
The selection of the city will be made by an "election Committee" consisting of eight IOC members, three athletes, one winter sports representative, one national Olympic official, the IOC's longest-serving member and the chairman of the 2006 evaluation commission.
No members of the executive board, the single most powerful panel in the IOC, will be part of the selection group, Carrard said.
He said the panel would be headed by Samaranch but that the IOC president would have no vote.
The process will be used as a trial for future votes, Carrard said. He said the procedure for 2008 and beyond will be decided after the 2006 vote.
A six-man IOC investigative panel concluded its report Sunday morning into the cash payments, scholarships and other favors tied to Salt Lake's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games.
The panel, which met for 15 hours Saturday and reconvened early Sunday, reported its findings to the IOC executive board.
IOC officials said the executive board began its own meeting to consider the evidence and make final recommendations.
The members were cited for accepting inducements -- reportedly totaling close to $800,000 in cash and benefits -- from Salt Lake boosters.
There also were reports of lavish gifts, free medical care and other improper exchanges between the members and the Salt Lake bidders.
The IOC said six members appeared before the inquiry commission in person Saturday to defend themselves. They were not identified. Members who didn't appear were judged on written replies submitted earlier to the IOC.
Ganga, who has been accused of accepting at least $70,000 of cash inducements, has defiantly proclaimed his innocence and vowed he'll never resign.
Santander, who was among the six delegates questioned Saturday, said he did nothing wrong and indicated he had no plans to quit.
"I am certain that I didn't act incorrectly at any moment," Santander said in Lausanne on Sunday, hours before the report was released. "Whatever happens today, I will stay in a calm and secure position in the belief that truth will prevail."
Santander was implicated after Tom Welch, the former Salt Lake bid and organizing committee chief, said he donated $10,000 to Santander's campaign for mayor of a suburb of Santiago, Chile.
IOC leaders were also seeking to control the damage from the latest revelations in the unfolding crisis -- that Australian officials used financial inducements to help Sydney win the right to stage the 2000 Summer Games.
Australian IOC executive board member Kevan Gosper said Saturday he saw nothing "sinister" in the $70,000 inducements offered by Australia's Olympics chief to two African IOC members the night before Sydney won the vote for the 2000 games.
Sydney beat Beijing 45-43 in the secret balloting in 1993.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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