July 21, 2000. Copyright 2000. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

TWO CHARGED IN OLYMPIC BRIBERY SCANDAL

LONDON, July 21, Graphic News: THE TWO chief organizers of Salt Lake CityÕs bid to win the 2002 Winter Olympics were indicted on Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, fraud and racketeering related to the vote-buying scandal that erupted in late 1998 and threatened the future of the Olympic Games.

Tom Welch, 55, former president of the cityÕs Olympic bid committee, and Dave Johnson, 41, the ex-vice president, are charged with allegedly trying to influence International Olympic Committee votes with $1 million in cash, gifts, travel and other inducements.

The indictments -- the fourth prosecution to date -- comes 19 months before Utah is set to host the Winter Olympics.

According to the indictment, the two paid $1 million of Olympic organising funds to influence the votes of more than a dozen International Olympic Committee members and Òpersonally diverted $130,000Ó of bid funds.

The 35-page indictment alleges that the conspiracy began in 1988, when Salt Lake was vying to be the U.S. candidate to host the 1998 Winter Games. Salt Lake City was chosen as the U.S. candidate, but the IOC chose Nagano, Japan, a bitter disappointment for Utah officials.

The indictment alleges that with a view toward influencing them, Welch and Johnson then identified current and former IOC members from Chile, the Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, Swaziland, Mali, Finland, Yugoslavia, Barbados, Ecuador, Cameroon, South Korea, Sudan, Kenya, Libya and the Congo.

In addition to cash, Welch and Johnson gave IOC members first-class airfare; medical care, including plastic surgery at Utah hospitals; rifles, pistols and shotguns; U.S. college tuition for children of six IOC members and even a golden retriever valued at $555, according to an internal investigation by Salt Lake Olympic officials.

ÒThe idea that we defrauded the bid committee or anybody else is preposterous. So is the charge that we bribed anybody,Ó Welch said.

ÒWe will be acquitted and we will present a defence that the people of Utah will understand.Ó

Welch and Johnson each were charged with one count of conspiracy, five counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud and four counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering. Each charge carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The charges are another blow to the sleeze-scarred Olympics. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee has struggled to raise money and keep sponsors from bowing out since the scandal erupted in November 1998.

In the wake of the scandal, 10 IOC members resigned or were sacked from the 105-year-old organization and the Salt Lake organizing committeeÕs upper management was replaced.

Both men have denied any wrongdoing and have said that other Olympic officials knew exactly what was being done to lure the Games, a charge that Olympic officials refute.
/ENDS
Sources: Associated Press, Reuters