Bribery Hearings Begin

Under tight security and behind a veil of secrecy, six of the 13 International Olympic Committee members suspected of wrongdoing in Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Games pleaded their case Saturday before a special commission investigating the biggest corruption scandal in Olympic history.

As the scandal widened to include the 2000 Sydney Summer Games, the six-member ad hoc panel worked into the night--behind barricades set up outside IOC headquarters on the shores of Lake Geneva--to complete its report on allegations of vote-buying in Salt Lake City’s 2002 bid. The report is due to be presented today to the IOC’s executive board.

Some Olympic officials said Saturday that nothing less than the credibility and future direction of the 105-year-old movement is at stake. “The credibility has already been damaged,” said Los Angeles-based Anita DeFrantz, one of four IOC vice presidents. “If we act decisively, we will have a future.”

Australia’s senior IOC official, meantime, told a packed news conference that he saw nothing “sinister” in the $70,000 inducement offered by Australia’s Olympics chief to two African delegates the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games.

“I have no reason to believe that was bribery,” IOC executive board member R. Kevan Gosper said. Nonetheless, he said, the board will discuss the Australian payments at today’s meeting and may order a full-scale investigation of Sydney’s bid.

The scandal began with allegations that Salt Lake City bid boosters gave IOC members or their relatives cash, college scholarships, medical care and other enticements.

Two members resigned this week--Pirjo Haggman of Finland and Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi of Libya. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch has said that seven others could be expelled; he also has said that four more members stand accused of lesser infractions.

Jacques Rogge, a Belgian member of the commission, told the Associated Press on Saturday, “There are cases among them that are just unacceptable, brutal corruption, when simply money was asked for.”

Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo, who has emerged as one of the prime targets of the commission, allegedly received thousands of dollars from Salt Lake 2002 boosters, free medical care for himself and his mother and help from a bid committee member in making a land investment that earned him a $60,000 profit.

He said in an interview with CNN that he committed no misconduct and will not resign.

Ganga said that what’s at issue is a power struggle for the presidency of the IOC. He said that three of the members of the inquiry panel are angling to succeed Samaranch--apparently a reference to Dick Pound, the head of the panel and an IOC vice president from Canada; Pal Schmitt of Hungary, another vice president; and executive board member Thomas Bach of Germany.

“They want to kick out before the vote those influential people they know are against them,” Ganga said. He added, “I’m maybe a candidate for the presidency.”

Pound declined to comment on Saturday.

Gosper--who is not a member of Pound’s panel--did not address Ganga’s assertions. Mindful, though, of the mounting calls from outside the IOC for Samaranch to step down because of the scandal, Gosper said the president retains the “full confidence” of the executive board.

“You don’t lose a president who has brought you through good times, tough tasks, expanded an organization financially . . . [and] put on some of the greatest Games in Olympic history--but then when you go through difficult times, say, ‘We’ll do something else.’

“If ever we need a good president, an experienced president, we need it now,” Gosper said.

Outside Samaranch’s office and IOC headquarters Saturday, police and security guards kept close tabs on scores of journalists huddled in the cold behind the barricades.

Many IOC officials sought to avoid the camera crews by driving into an underground parking lot and going into the building through a private entrance.

Lamine Keita of Mali, another IOC member believed to be among the 13 implicated in the scandal, arrived in mid-morning. The other five appeared throughout the day.

Each of the members who elected not to appear Saturday in person had submitted a letter of explanation, the IOC said in a statement, adding that these members “were advised that their case will be dealt with by the [inquiry panel] solely on their written submission.”

The panel worked well past midnight. “This is the most difficult situation we have faced, because some of our members seem to have abused their privilege,” DeFrantz said while waiting for the six committee members to emerge from behind closed doors. “As we expect athletes to compete with integrity, we expect IOC members to act with integrity.”

The IOC was rocked Friday by the revelation that John Coates, Australia Olympic Committee president, made the $70,000 inducement for the two Africa votes the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games--by a mere two votes, 45-43.

Coates had released documents to Australian news outlets detailing $5,000 payments per year to Olympic committees in Kenya and Uganda from 1994 through 2000.

He said he offered the payments at a dinner in Monaco on Sept. 22, 1993, to Kenya’s Charles Mukora and Uganda’s Maj. Gen. Francis Nyangweso.

“I thought it was necessary for us to show our commitment to those [national Olympic committees] with a view to winning those votes,” Coates told the Sydney Morning Herald. “My view was it might encourage them to consider their votes for Sydney.”

The offer was contingent on Sydney winning the Games. In comments Friday, Gosper said the offer went “beyond good will” and said it might spark some to call for Sydney to be stripped of the Games.

In a clear attempt Saturday at damage control, Gosper said at the news conference he was now “comfortable” with the payments after speaking with Coates.

“The information has been clarified,” he said, adding a moment later, “Whilst it’s added a new dimension [to the scandal], I don’t think there’s anything sinister about the matter.”

In Sydney on Saturday, Coates told reporters the payments were within IOC guidelines and were similar to plans used by competitors from Beijing and Manchester, England.

Gosper maintained Saturday that Coates was doing everything he could till the last minute--or, as he put it in Australian slang, “right up to the knocker”--to secure votes.

“Sometimes a result comes in the last minute, in the same way it comes within the last meter of a race,” he said. He stressed, “I’m not saying that anything goes.” But he also said, “I don’t have trouble with money going in the direction of sport.”

Gosper said the inducements stemmed from a legitimate aid program for African athletes.

“You must allow some freedom among the candidate cities to use their imagination and take certain steps to augment their chances,” Gosper said. “That’s a normal process in any bidding . . . as long as it complies with the rules of the bid.”

In a related development, The Australian newspaper reported that Coates also wrote to Mukora and Nyangweso a few weeks before the vote for the 2000 Games, offering to put them up at Sydney’s expense at the pricey Dorchester Hotel in London on their way to Monaco.

The two Africans did not take Coates up on the offer, Gosper said. But he also said the arrangement might be the kind of case “where there needs to be further tightening of the rules.”

Reiterating a comment he made Friday, Gosper said he will ask the executive board today to affirm that the Games will go forward in Sydney and Salt Lake City.

At its meeting today, the board is expected to recommend expulsions and changes in the bidding and site-selection procedure. A special meeting of the full membership--now down to 113--is set for March 17-18 to vote on the expulsions.

It takes a two-thirds majority vote to expel a member.

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Scandal Timetable

Key developments in the Olympics bribery scandal:

Nov. 24, 1998: Salt Lake television station obtains 1996 letter mentioning $10,000 scholarship paid to daughter of IOC member.

Dec. 8, 1998: Salt Lake Olympic Committee declines to reveal identities if International Olympic Committee relatives who benefited from a $400,000 IOC scholarship fund.

Dec. 11, 1998: IOC creates panel to investigate bribery allegations.

Dec. 14, 1998: IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch says games will not be moved because of the scandal.

Dec. 22, 1998: U.S. Olympic Committee appoints former Senate majority leader George Mitchell to investigate bribery allegations.

Dec. 23, 1998: U.S. Justice Department begins investigation into Salt Lake.

Jan. 4, 1999: Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt asks SLOC officials to take leaves of absence during inquiries.

Jan. 8, 1999: SLOC Chief Frank Jokik resigns.

Jan. 14, 1999: Alfredo La Mont, USOC senior director of international relations, resigns amid allegations he passed on information about foreign Olympic officials to be used to aid Salt Lake effort.

Jan. 20, 1999: Wall Street Journal reports IOC members received cash or benefits worth up to $780,000.

Source: Times staff and wire reports