Justice, FBI Join Salt Lake City Olympics Probe

The Justice Department and the FBI opened an investigation Wednesday into allegations that the Salt Lake City bid committee attempted to buy votes from the International Olympic Committee during its successful campaign to host the 2002 Winter Games.

The IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City committee’s ethics board also have begun investigations in the past week after claims that Salt Lake City spent nearly $400,000 on a college scholarship fund, six of whose recipients were relatives of IOC members, and that members were given free medical treatment and cosmetic surgery and lavish gifts, such as skis and antique rifles.

The series of investigations began after longtime Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler detailed what he believed was the systematic buying and selling of the Olympic Games, including the one at Salt Lake City.

Spokeswoman Shelly Thomas said the Salt Lake Organizing Committee “will cooperate fully with the Department of Justice in its investigation of the bid process,” the Washington Post reported in today’s editions.

“SLOC is committed to providing all assistance necessary in bringing these inquiries to a swift and productive conclusion. Our wish is to move forward with integrity,” she said.

A federal official said investigators will try to determine whether U.S. fraud, tax or public corruption statutes may have been violated, the Post reported.

Salt Lake City won the right in June 1995 to host the 2002 Games, receiving 54 votes of the 89 IOC member votes on the first ballot. Ostersund, Sweden, and Sion, Switzerland, were next with 14 votes each.

Time Crunch Locks in Chosen Site

Even with the new investigation, IOC Vice President Anita DeFrantz on Wednesday confirmed earlier IOC statements that the Games will not be moved from Salt Lake City.

“It can’t be done,” said DeFrantz, president of Los Angeles’ Amateur Athletic Foundation.

DeFrantz pointed out that no other city could assume the monumental task of hosting the Olympic Games with only three years’ preparation.

“Besides, their win [in the 1995 election] was decisive,” she said. “Notwithstanding the issues that are being investigated, that’s why the IOC wouldn’t take it away.”

The announcement of the federal government’s involvement surprised several members of the U.S. Olympic community, including Los Angeles attorney John Argue, chairman of the Los Angeles 2012 Olympic bid committee.

“That does surprise me, given the facts that I know,” Argue said.

“I’ll be surprised if it goes anywhere. What we’ve got to do is get back to putting our eye on the ball and having a really good Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. At some point, it’s going to hurt the athletes and the people of Salt Lake City.”

“This is a matter that’s very public,” said attorney Barry Sanders, whose firm, Latham & Watkins, was retained by Salt Lake City after the federal investigation was announced.

“I’m not surprised that there’s public interest, and public interest that reflects governmental interest,” Sanders said.

The number of investigations could hinder the fact-finding process, according to a member of the board of trustees of the Salt Lake City organizing committee board of trustees.

Nolan Karras, who represents the governor’s office on the board, said Wednesday: “You can be sure it will make it much more difficult to investigate this, because everyone is going to run and get their attorney.”

But DeFrantz believes the four investigations will be worthwhile if they succeed in cutting through the rumors now surrounding the Salt Lake City committee.

“There are so many innuendoes; there’s so much out there,” DeFrantz said. “Perhaps the good news is that, by having these investigations, the fact and fiction can be divided.”

Standing by City’s Merits

DeFrantz does not see the IOC decision to hold the games in Salt Lake City being overturned, whatever the outcome of the federal investigation.

“First of all, Salt Lake won on the merits,” DeFrantz said. “There seem to be a few [IOC] members who were directly affected by something or other, but the merits of the bid won--whatever the number of votes [for Salt Lake City], minus those that might have been tainted.

“They still would have had a majority on the first round of voting.”