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Samaranch to answer FBI questions
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 03:53 PM
LONDON (AP) -- International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch says he will return to the United States in two weeks to answer questions from federal authorities investigating the Salt Lake City bid scandal. "I think my duty as president of the International Olympic Committee is to go there," Samaranch told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "It is my duty to clarify all the questions. All the questions can be answered very easily at this moment. ... Our position is very clear. We have nothing to hide." The IOC announced last month that Samaranch had agreed to submit to a "voluntary interview" with Justice Department and FBI investigators probing the more than $1 million in improper payments, gifts and other inducements offered to IOC members during Salt Lake's winning bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Under an agreement with the Justice Department, Samaranch did not have to face questioning during his trip to Washington last month when he testified at a Congressional hearing on Olympic scandals and the IOC's reform efforts. Both sides agreed that Samaranch would be interviewed at a mutually convenient later date. Speaking by telephone from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, Samaranch said the exact date of the meeting had not been "100 percent fixed" but that it would be in around two weeks' time. IOC director general Francois Carrard, who has been the middleman in discussions with U.S. officials, said both sides agreed not to disclose the place and date of the session. Samaranch has not been served with a subpoena, and the IOC says he is not a target of the investigation. "What the IOC has done from day one of these events is decided on a policy of full cooperation with all governmental authorities, particularly in the United States," Carrard said. "We have been totally complying with this policy." Some IOC members have advised Samaranch not to travel to the United States to speak with investigators because of the possibility he could be subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury. These members say Samaranch should insist on holding the meeting in Europe. But Samaranch said he has nothing to fear. "I am ready to go anytime," he said. Samaranch said he would explain to investigators how the IOC took action when it learned of the Salt Lake vote-buying scheme. Ten IOC members resigned or were expelled. "We heard some rumors of non-observance of the Olympic charter by some members," he said. "When we got some names, we set up an inquiry commission. In three months, we cleaned the house. There are no secrets." Samaranch would be the eighth IOC member questioned by investigators in the case. Carrard said last month that six members had been interviewed. A seventh has been questioned since then, he said Wednesday. Among the IOC members who have spoken to investigators are Canadians Dick Pound and Carol Anne Letheren, Jean Claude-Killy of France, Marc Hodler of Switzerland and Niels Holst-Soerensen of Denmark. The Justice Department/FBI investigation, which has been underway for more than a year, has led to criminal charges against two minor figures so far. Utah businessman David Simmons pleaded guilty Aug. 3 to a federal misdemeanor tax charge. He said he helped create a sham job for John Kim, son of powerful South Korean IOC executive board member Kim Un-Yong. John Kim was indicted in September on federal charges that he lied to investigators and entered the United States with a fraudulently obtained green card. The chief target of the investigation is believed to be Tom Welch, who led the Salt Lake bid effort and is also the former head of the organizing committee. Samaranch testified before a House panel on Dec. 15, telling skeptical lawmakers that he IOC had cleaned itself up and resolved the crisis by approving a package of 50 reforms at a special general assembly in Lausanne three days earlier. Asked Wednesday about the hearing, Samaranch said: "I can't say it was a success. I went there. I answered questions. For me, the timing was excellent after the approval of the reforms, maybe the most important changes in the history of the IOC. I have been told they [lawmakers] appreciated my voluntary presence. They will follow [the implementation of the reforms] with a lot of attention." Samaranch said the three American IOC members -- Anita DeFrantz, Jim Easton and newly elected athletes' member Bob Ctvrtlik -- would report to Congress every two or three months on the progress of the reforms. Samaranch restated his intention to remain as IOC president until his term expires in July 2001. "When I pass the power to the next president, I want to say, `Here is the IOC, and I think it is much stronger today than the day when I was elected [in 1980],' " he said.
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