Russian Passport for Nuzman, Tokyo 2020 Vote Buying

(ATR) Brazilian investigators want to know why Carlos Nuzman has been issued a passport from Russia. The document is one of the items seized by police in a search of Nuzman’s home Sept. 5 in Rio de Janeiro.

The search by federal police is part of an investigation named Operation Unfair Play, aimed at uncovering possible bribery of IOC members to gain their votes in 2009 when Rio de Janeiro was elected host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Police searched 11 locations Tuesday, including the headquarters of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, where Nuzman has been president since 1995.

Nuzman and his attorney spent close to six hours with police on Tuesday. The attorney insists Nuzman has done nothing wrong and that police will not find evidence linking him to a scheme of using offshore bank accounts to funnel bribes to IOC members in Africa.

In addition to the Russian passport, prosecutors say $130,000 in cash split among U.S. dollars, Euros, Swiss francs and Brazilian Reis was found in the raid. Computers, briefcases and documents were also taken from Nuzman’s home in Leblon.

Nuzman has surrendered his Brazilian passport to authorities while the investigation is underway. He is not charged and was allowed to leave police headquarters and return home Tuesday after questioning.

A critic alleges that Nuzman received the Russian passport in exchange for his vote in 2007 for Sochi, Russia as the host of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Eric Maleson, who at one time was the president of the Brazilian Federation of Ice Sports, tried to challenge Nuzman for the Brazilian Olympic Committee presidency in 2012. Maleson competed in bobsleigh for Brazil at the Winter Games.

According to Brazilian prosecutor Fabiana Schneiderat her press conference Tuesday "this Russian passport should allow Nuzman to hope to escapefrom the Brazilian justice if it were necessary."

Prosecutors allege that Nuzman may have been part of a vote buying scheme that funneled more than $2 million from a wealthy Brazilian businessman to the accounts of Papa Massata Diack, the son of the now disgraced ex-president of the IAAF and IOC member in Senegal, Lamine Diack.

Nuzman, 75, was an IOC member for 12 years until retiring in 2012. He is now an honorary IOC member.

During the press conference a prosecutor claimed that evidence uncovered by French investigators shows that the younger Diack received $1.7 million from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics bid. Investigators are trying to find out if Tokyo bid officials were hoping to use the money to influence the votes of African IOC members when Tokyo was selected in 2013.

The vote buying investigation grew out of the inquiry conducted by French prosecutors in 2015 into the doping scandal involving Russian track and field athletes. Along with evidence that as president of the IAAF, Lamine Diack asked for bribes from Russian athletes to keep secret positive drug tests, French officials say they learned about suspicious dealings with the Olympic bids for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Once evidence involving Rio was uncovered, French investigators invited their colleagues in Brazil to launch their own inquiry.

Brazilian prosecutor says the transfer of money was simpler in the case of Tokyo 2020. She says it was deposited directly into a bank account of a company owned by the younger Diack. In the case of Rio 2016, she says the money was channeled to a third-party before it was sent to Diack.

Tokyo 2020 bid leaders have been questioned by the French and say the money went for consulting services but not to buy votes. Japanese officials say records of the transactions and other details could not be found.

Written by Ed Hula.

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