(ATR) Ivan Slavkov, the last IOC member to be expelled over corruption is dead after a bout with pneumonia reports the Bulgarian news agency Focus.
Slavkov was suspended from the IOC in 2004 after he was secretly videotaped by the BBC offering to deliver the votes of his colleagues in exchange for cash. A year later, Slavkov was expelled from the IOC at the Session in Singapore.
Called a playboy in one headline from Bulgaria, Slavkov had served as president of the Bulgarian Football Association and the Bulgarian NOC. He was elected to the IOC in 1987.
His rise in Bulgarian sport is believed to have been aided by his marriage into the family of Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov. But Zhivkov was deposed in 1989, opening the door for a series of run-ins between Slavkov and the new government.
Hewas prohibited from travelling outside Bulgaria for a while, keeping him from IOC meetings. He was charged and later acquitted of embezzling funds from the NOC.
In 2000, Slavkov came under the watch of the newly-formed IOC Ethics Commission for dealings involving the 2004 Olympic bid from Capetown, South Africa. But no sanctions were issued when the case was closed by the commission.
At the 2005 IOC Session, Slavkov delivered a 20-minute plea for mercy, a plea that failed to win much sympathy from members who had seen the BBC program in a private viewing just hours before the vote .
Slavkov tried to convince his colleagues that he was trying to expose the phony agent, not take a $25,000 bribe.
The vote to expel was 82 for, 12 against and 5 abstaining.
No IOC members have been expelled since Slavkov.
Written by Ed Hula.