Report alleges Tokyo Olympic bid paid US$1.4 million to disgraced athletics official

A US$1.4 million payment from the successful Tokyo Olympic bid team to a bank account linked to the son of the disgraced former world athletics head Lamine Diack was apparently made during the race to host the 2020 Games.

According to a report in UK newspaper The Guardian the alleged payment of around US$1.4 million (€1.3 million) now believed to be under scrutiny by French police, will increase pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to investigate properly links between the links of former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Diack’s regime and the bidding race for its flagship event.

Any suggestion that votes could have been bought will be hugely embarrassing for the IOC, which has set great store by the probity of its bidding process since wholesale reforms following the Salt Lake City bribery scandal which erupted before the winter Games of 2002.

Lamine Diack was an IOC member between 1999 and 2013, becoming an honorary member in 2014 before resigning in November last year after allegations he had accepted more than €1 million in bribes to cover up positive Russian doping tests. He is now prevented from leaving France while prosecutors there investigate corruption at athletics’ governing body.

In March, The Guardian revealed that the French investigation had widened to include the bidding races for the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.

It is now understood that among transactions under suspicion are payments totalling around €1.3 million apparently sent from the Tokyo 2020 bid, or those acting on their behalf, directly to the Black Tidings bank account in Singapore. The account is linked to Lamine Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, who was employed by the IAAF as a marketing consultant.

Lamine Diack, the longstanding former IAAF President, was still an influential IOC member in 2013 when Tokyo triumphed over fellow bidders Istanbul and Madrid.

The secret Black Tidings account is at the heart of the allegations of institutionalised corruption at the IAAF over more than a decade.

An independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) and published in January showed how Diack and his sons, Papa Massata and Khalil, who were employed as marketing consultants, joined up with the lawyer Habib Cissé to function “as an informal illegitimate governance structure” of the IAAF.

The Guardian had earlier revealed that Papa Massata Diack, who had carte blanche to seek sponsorship deals in developing markets under an agreement with marketing partner Dentsu, appeared to request US$5 million from Qatar at a time when it was bidding for the 2017 world athletics championships and the 2020 Olympics.

In January, the Guardian also revealed that Diack junior was in 2008 apparently involved in a scheme to deliver ‘parcels’ to six influential members of the IOC at a time when the Qatari capital Doha was attempting to bid for the 2016 Olympics.

Asked about the alleged payment, believed to have been made in more than one tranche before and after the Games were secured, the Japanese Olympic Committee – which oversaw the bid – said its press team was away on business for a week and was unable to respond.

The Tokyo 2020 organising committee said it had no knowledge of what went on during the bid period.

Organising committee spokeswoman Hikariko Ono stated “the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has no means of knowing these allegations. We believe that the Games were awarded to Tokyo because the city presented the best bid.”

Lower image shows Lamine Diack.

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