Bribe of Olympic Sizes - Tokyo 2020 - Kommersant

Bribe of Olympic Sizes - Tokyo 2020 - Kommersant



The organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics, which, due to the coronavirus pandemic, was moved from the summer of 2020 to the summer of 2021, was at the center of a corruption scandal. One of its members, Haruyuki Takahashi, was arrested on suspicion of taking more than 50 bribes totaling ¥51 million ($380,000). This money was transferred to his company under a contract allegedly for the provision of consulting services to the large clothing manufacturer Aoki Holdings, which subsequently received the status of an official partner of the Games and a contract for tailoring official suits for athletes. This is not the first corruption scandal associated with the Tokyo Games: even before they began, the former head of the NOC of Japan, Tsunekazu Takeda, was accused of giving a bribe in order to win the election of the venue for the Olympics.

The fact that the Tokyo prosecutor's office arrested a member of the organizing committee of the Summer Olympics Haruyuki Takahashi in a corruption case was reported by the agency on August 17. Kyodo. The Japanese heavyweight functionary is suspected of taking more than 50 bribes totaling ¥51 million ($380,000) between October and March of this year from clothing manufacturer Aoki Holdings.

The money under the contract concluded in 2017, the brand transferred the firm of 78-year-old Haruyuki Takahashi, engaged in the provision of consulting services. And a little later, already in 2018, Aoki Holdings became the official partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and received a number of preferences. Among them is the opportunity to use Olympic symbols “for business purposes”, as well as a contract for the production of official suits for athletes, members of the organizing committee and uniforms for judges.

Another important circumstance adds a criminal connotation to the case.

A functionary who was a member of the Olympic Organizing Committee was considered a civil servant and, in accordance with Japanese law, could not receive any payments or gifts.

Haruyuki Takahashi denies all allegations, having previously denied allegations related to yet another corruption scandal. In the spring of 2020, the agency Reuters published an investigation based on the financial statements it received from the Tokyo Summer Olympics bid committee. It focused on the activities of Mr. Takahashi in the period before the elections of the Olympic capital (they took place in 2013, Tokyo was ahead of Istanbul and Madrid). The functionary was then a member of the management of the advertising and marketing agency Dentsu Inc., which also specializes in the sports industry.

The attention of Reuters was attracted by a significant amount - $ 8.2 million, transferred to Haruyuki Takahashi by the bid committee for certain services.

Mr. Takahashi, who received an important post in the organizing committee after Tokyo's victory, explained that these services consisted in "lobbying" the Tokyo application in the international sports community, in particular in the IOC, which chooses the hosts of the Olympics. Among the targets of his lobbying work, which the Japanese openly spoke about, was IOC member Lamine Diack, to whom he gave gifts, such as video cameras and Seiko watches.

Although there were no obvious violations of the code of ethics in the act of donation, suspicions arose in connection with the background of Mr. Diack. Already the deceased Senegalese, who headed the International Athletics Federation from 1999 to 2015, according to the results of a large-scale investigation by French law enforcement agencies was presented a number of allegations of corruption and money laundering. For the most part, they concerned the concealment for bribes of doping violations in the form under his jurisdiction.

Him and his son Pope Massate Diaco charged and vote trading in the distribution of major competitions. The list of those whose distribution the family tandem may have influenced had already included one Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and the Tokyo bid committee was also mentioned in the French investigation. Investigators tried to find out if he once paid Lamine Diack $ 2.3 million through an intermediary - a Singapore consulting company.

Tsunekazu Takeda, head of the bid committee and former president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, was later found to be involved in this tranche. French prosecutor's office charged Mr. Takeda in giving a bribe in order to win the elections for the venue of the Olympics, and he, in the wake of the scandal, decided to resign.

Ekaterina Remizova



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