IOC Expels 6 Members, Vows Reforms

Aiming to blunt the biggest corruption scandal in the 105 years of the Olympic movement, officials Sunday expelled six members and vowed to institute radical reforms in the way cities are selected for future Games.

International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch also announced that Salt Lake City will keep the 2002 Winter Games and the 2000 Summer Games will stay in Sydney, Australia--despite allegations of bribery, first in Salt Lake, later in Sydney, that precipitated the spiraling scandal.

Capping an emergency two-day meeting, Samaranch said he has not once considered resigning--despite mounting calls from outside the IOC for him to step down. But he said he will ask for a vote of confidence on his leadership at a special IOC assembly in March--a vote members of the ruling executive board said Sunday night he is all but sure to win.

“It should not have happened,” Samaranch said at a packed news conference, a reference to the conduct of IOC members. “We are very sorry.”

Samaranch, in comments echoed Sunday night by other senior Olympic officials, said he hoped the IOC could win back the confidence of athletes, the public and, perhaps most critically in the near term, the corporate sponsors that in recent years have helped make the Olympics a billion-dollar business.

Michael Payne, the IOC’s director of marketing, said the complex site-selection reforms, the expulsions and a series of other developments announced Sunday will send a “very strong message” to sponsors and others of the IOC’s “resolve and commitment to get to the bottom of the matter.”

In other actions Sunday:

* David Sibandze of Swaziland resigned--the third IOC member to do so because of the scandal. Three others remain under investigation, the IOC said. One more will receive a formal warning about his actions. A 14th IOC member under suspicion, Rene Essomba of Cameroon, died last year. In all, more than 10% of the IOC’s members, 115 at the beginning of the year, have been implicated in the scandal.

* Samaranch said he intends to send two top officials to Sydney in the coming weeks to investigate the situation there. Australia’s Olympics chief revealed Friday that he offered $70,000 in inducements to two African delegates the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games--by a mere two votes.

* The IOC will establish a permanent ethics commission. A majority of members would come from outside the IOC, and Samaranch said such a commission would ensure that the IOC “conforms with the world’s best practices in self-governance.”

* The IOC will review every bid for the Games from the Summer Games of 1996, won in 1990 by Atlanta, through the 2006 Winter Games, due to be awarded this year, for evidence of misconduct.

* Finally, the IOC will try a new system for picking the 2006 Games: No more visits by IOC members to the six bid cities or by city boosters to where IOC members live. And no vote by the entire membership of the IOC, as has been the case. Instead, a special committee--made up of eight IOC members, three athletes and others--will make the choice. No member of the executive board, the single most powerful panel in the IOC, will be part of the selection group, IOC Director-General Francois Carrard said.

Samaranch, who will be a nonvoting member of the committee, said the process will be used as a trial for future votes.

Allegations Sparked Crisis

The crisis in the Olympic movement was sparked last month with allegations that IOC members or their families got cash, college scholarships, medical care and other enticements from Salt Lake boosters.

But Dick Pound, an IOC vice president from Canada, said Sunday that the seeds for the scandal were really sown in Los Angeles in 1984--when, for the first time, it became apparent that the Games could be put on for profit.

The 1984 Games netted a $225-million profit; games in prior years had typically been a break-even proposition or a big loser. The 1976 Montreal Summer Games produced a deficit of more than $1 billion.

After the 1984 Games, increasing numbers of cities wanted in on the action, hoping to capitalize on a revenue stream linked to the Games that Pound estimated Sunday is now worth “north of $2 billion” to a winning city.

That kind of money produced a gift-giving, hospitality-showering, wining-and-dining fest--a culture of luxury and opportunity that many IOC members came to expect.

“Out there at the edges, you know, the opportunities for temptation increase,” said Pound, who led a special six-member IOC internal inquiry panel into events in Salt Lake City. Three other investigations are also ongoing, including one by the U.S. Department of Justice looking into the possibility of criminal wrongdoing.

Unsubstantiated rumors of misconduct and bribery have for years dogged the Olympic bid process. But Olympic officials maintain that events in Salt Lake City provided the first hard evidence of wrongdoing.

Misconduct Found

In a report released Sunday, Pound’s six-member panel made plain it was not suggesting that it had unearthed criminal conduct.

But, the report made clear, there was ample evidence of “conscious and knowing” misconduct--particularly by the six who were expelled: Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo; Agustin C. Arroyo of Ecuador; Zein El Abdin Ahmed Abdel Gadir of Sudan; Lamine Keita of Mali; Charles Nderitu Mukora of Kenya; and Sergio Santander Fantini of Chile.

Ganga, the report said, accepted more than $216,000 from Salt Lake organizers and boosters in cash, medical and travel expenses, gifts and entertainment. Ganga has consistently said he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

One of Keita’s sons received more than $97,000 from the Salt Lake organizing committee from 1993 through 1997 for tuition, books and living expenses at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Keita could not be reached for comment.

Sibandze, who resigned Sunday afternoon after being told that he was in line to be expelled, accepted “in and around six figures,” Pound said late Sunday night in an interview. Pound did not provide further details about Sibandze nor does the report supply them. Utah officials have said that Sibandze’s son was given a job with a Salt Lake municipal office after receiving a master’s degree from the University of Utah.

Still under investigation are Louis Guirandou-N’Diaye of the Ivory Coast, Kim Un-Yong of South Korea and Vitaly Smirnov of Russia. The proposed ethics commission should take up their cases, Pound’s report said.

In addition, Anton Geesink of the Netherlands was issued a “strongly worded warning” because a foundation bearing his name accepted a $5,000 check from Tom Welch, the former Salt Lake bid and organizing chief. The money went toward a sport utility vehicle used to promote Olympic ideals.

Mukora and Uganda’s Maj. Gen. Francis Nyangweso are the two Africans that Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates said he approached the night before Sydney won the 2000 Games with an inducement offer--$35,000 apiece to the Kenyan and Ugandan national Olympic committees over a six-year period. The offer was contingent on Sydney getting the games. The Australians have been making payments since 1994, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Neither Mukora nor Nyangweso could be located Sunday for comment.

The executive board’s vote to expel the six members hit particularly hard at the IOC’s African delegation--particularly in light of Essomba’s death in 1998 and the resignation Friday of Libya’s Bashir Mohamed Attarabulsi. Finland’s Pirjo Haggman resigned on Tuesday.

But, said Keba Mbaye, of Senegal, a judge on the World Court and an IOC executive board member who served on Pound’s panel, “we in no way tried to decapitate African sports.”

The executive board vote to expel was unanimous, Pound said, without a hint of disagreement.

At Sunday’s news conference, Samaranch said that the six had been “temporarily excluded,” leading many to believe they had been suspended pending a March 17-18 all-members meeting in Lausanne.

Not so, Pound said. Excluded, he said, means expelled.

“They are out--unless the [all-members] session votes them in,” he said. Another IOC vice president, Anita DeFrantz, added that the six may no longer refer to themselves as current members of the IOC.

If the six aren’t voted out--and it takes a two-thirds majority to make an expulsion a permanent fact--the IOC is left with little recourse, Pound admitted. Ganga, for one, has vowed to fight. Arroyo said he intends to fight too.

For his part, Samaranch urged all six not to contest the expulsions: “Put an end to this ugly chapter in the history of the Olympic Games.”

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Details of Probe

Olympic leaders expelled six IOC members Sunday, announced that three others remain under investigation, and another was warned about his actions.

EXPELLED

* Agustin Arroyo, 75, Ecuador. Member since 1968. Former private secretary to Ecuador’s president, former state Supreme Court judge, former ambassador to Britain. Investigating commission said Arroyo “knowingly accepted payments from the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee for the personal benefit of himself and a member of his family.” Salt Lake committee records showed he received living expenses of $19,000 from 1992 to 1995 and accepted travel expenses for multiple visits to Salt Lake City. In a letter, he asked the IOC for a hearing but offered no explanation for the funds.

* Jean-Claude Ganga, 64, Republic of Congo. Member since 1986. President, Assn. of National Olympic Committees of Africa. Former ambassador to China, minister for tourism, sports and leisure since 1985. Led African boycott of 1976 Montreal Olympics. Commission found that Ganga accepted “very substantial” direct payments “for the personal benefit of himself” and free medical care for himself and his family. “He also accepted unusually generous gifts and largely excessive travel subsidies from SLOC.” The payments and gifts amounted to $216,010. Ganga argued that he paid about $72,000 to cash-strapped Olympic committees in Africa, and that he was insured for medical care but was told it was free. He admitted receiving gifts.

* Zein El Abdin Ahmed Abdel Gadir, 58, Sudan. Member 1983-87 and again since 1990. Former government minister. Commission found that Gadir “knowingly accepted payments from SLOC for the personal benefit of himself and his son” of about $25,000. He said he was facing economic hardship as a result of sanctions against Sudan and needed money to support his family.

* Lamine Keita, 65, Mali. Member since 1977. Engineer, ambassador, international consultant, minister of industrial development and tourism. The commission said Keita “knowingly permitted” SLOC to pay more than $97,000 from 1993 to 1997 to support his son at the University of Utah. Keita said he was not responsible for the behavior of his 26-year-old son.

* Charles Mukora, 64, Kenya. Member since 1990. Coach of Kenyan track teams at Mexico City and Munich Olympics. Teacher, former member of Parliament, manager and director of external affairs for Coca-Cola in Africa. Commission found that Mukora accepted payments of $34,650 “for his personal benefit.” He maintained money was for sports in Kenya.

* Sergio Santander Fantini, 72, Chile. Member since 1992. Former vice president, South American Sports Organization. President, Chilean Olympic Committee. Commission said Santander was aware of payments from Tom Welch, head of the Salt Lake bid committee, to his campaign for mayor of Pirque, near Santiago, Chile. He claimed he thought a $5,000 contribution from Welch was a personal one and not from Salt Lake City, and that he had no knowledge of a second $15,000 contribution.

STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION

* Kim Un-Yong, 67, South Korea. Member since 1986. Former secretary to South Korean prime minister; Foreign Ministry advisor and special envoy to South Korean president; ambassador at large. Kim, the highest-ranking IOC member known to be implicated in the scandal, said he was asked to explain help he gave colleague Vitaly Smirnov in getting U.S. college enrollment for a 19-year-old Russian woman. Further questions about benefits received by his son.

* Louis Guirandou-N’Diaye, 75, Ivory Coast. Member since 1969. Former vice president, IOC executive board; former chairman, commission on new sources of financing; chief of protocol. Commission said there was conflicting information about his acceptance of a $5,000 check.

* Vitaly Smirnov, 63, Russia. Member since 1971. President, Russian Olympic Committee; chairman, Sports Committee of the Russian Federation. Smirnov, once one of the IOC’s most powerful members, has acknowledged being asked by IOC investigators to explain his request for free medical treatment for former Soviet hockey star Alexander Ragulin and his receipt of a Browning rifle from Salt Lake bidders.

ISSUED A WARNING

* Anthonius Geesink, 64, the Netherlands. Member since 1987. Olympic judo gold medalist in 1964, two-time judo world champion. Advisor to Dutch secretary of state for sports. Teacher and coach. Committee said Geesink accepted a check for $5,000 from Welch’s personal account, but that the gift was unsolicited and he believed it was for the nonprofit Anton Geesink Foundation, of which Geesink is not a board member.

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* MIKE PENNER

The IOC’s much-trumpeted housecleaning seemed to be toughest on a few scapegoats. D1