Payments Made to Pound’s Firm

Francois Carrard, director general of the International Olympic Committee, confirmed Tuesday that the IOC had since 1985 paid about $200,000 annually to the Montreal law firm of former IOC marketing chief Dick Pound for legal work Pound was performing for the IOC.

Over the years, the payments to the Stikeman Elliott firm, one of Canada’s leading law firms, total more than $3 million, Carrard said.

He said the idea for the payments came from former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch in December 1985, that they were “absolutely within [Samaranch’s] authority” and that Pound agreed on the condition he personally not profit from them--that is, not being factored into his partnership share. Samaranch did not consult the executive board in authorizing the payments, Carrard said.

Pound, speaking by telephone from Toronto, said, “It’s an arrangement that’s been completely above board. It was in writing at the request of [Samaranch]. It only involved things in which I was acting as a lawyer, not as an IOC member. I had no personal benefit at all. It’s been [ongoing] for 16 years. I’m surprised it seems to be such an issue.”

Pound finished third in July’s IOC presidential election, behind winner Jacques Rogge and South Korea’s Kim Un Yong, and immediately resigned his powerful post as IOC marketing chief. He remains an IOC member.

Rogge introduced the issue in his first meeting as president with the full executive board. Although he reportedly did not indicate he believes there was anything wrong with the payments, his action suggested a departure in substance and style from Samaranch.

Anonymous faxes purporting to detail the payments had circulated in recent weeks. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported at the height of the Salt Lake corruption scandal in January 1999, that the IOC was paying Stikeman Elliott but did not detail an amount.

Carrard said there is “no reason” for an investigation by the IOC’s ethics commission into the payments to Pound’s firm.