Former Rio gov: I paid $2M in bribes to win 2016 Olympics.
by G.K.Chesterton (2019-07-05 22:32:04)
Edited on 2019-07-05 22:32:48
by G.K.Chesterton (2019-07-05 22:32:04)
Edited on 2019-07-05 22:32:48
(Your attention, please: Would Hercules please pick up a nearby white courtesy phone?)
From the AP:
A jailed former governor of Rio de Janeiro state told a judge on Thursday that he paid about $2 million for the votes of International Olympic Committee members to award the Brazilian city the 2016 Summer Games.
Sergio Cabral said he paid $1.5 million in bribes through intermediaries to the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack, originally in exchange for up to six votes in the meeting that awarded Rio the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The former governor added that another $500,000 was paid later to Diack’s son with the aim of securing three more votes of IOC members for Rio.
The former governor said he bought the votes for Rio to get to "the second stage of the vote" and that "no votes were bought after that."
Rio was chosen over Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to host the 2016 Games. Chicago’s bid, considered by most a strong one, was the first to be eliminated, despite the presence of then-U.S. President Barack Obama at the IOC meeting in Copenhagen.
Tokyo was next. Rio beat Madrid in the final round, 66 votes to 32.
Cabral said former Brazilian Olympic Committee chairman Carlos Arthur Nuzman handled the bribe negotiations. The former governor said the money came from a debt owed to him by businessman Arthur Soares.
