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JOC chief interviewed by prosecutors over Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid graft allegations

Xinhua, February 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

Tokyo prosecutors have interviewed the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) Tsunekazu Takeda over bribery allegations in connection to Japan winning the bid to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, local media reported Wednesday.

The interview of JOC President Takeda and others connected to Japan's bidding committee were held on a voluntary basis and at the request of French prosecutors.

Takeda was head of the bidding committee when Japan won its bid to host the Games in 2020.

French authorities have been investigating payments made from a Japanese bank account to a consultancy firm in Singapore named Black Tidings.

The transfer, made under contracts signed by the Tokyo bid team, was worth more than 2 million U.S. dollars and was made before Japan won the bid, media reports here said.

French authorities, according to the reports, are looking into the fact that Black Tidings is headed by Ian Tan Tong Hon, who is known to be friends with Papa Massata Diack, son of disgraced former international athletics chief Lamine Diack.

Takeda and others being interviewed have denied any wrongdoings and said that the transfer was legal.

The Tokyo team's payment, however, was double that of average payments, with prosecutors suspecting that the payment may have gone to Lamine Diack who was a member of the International Olympic Committee during the bidding process.

Diack, as a member of the IOC at the time, had a vote on the host city for the 2020 Games.

In September last year, a Japanese investigative panel within the JOC found that the bank transfer in question was not illegal and was made based on a consulting contract made with Black Tidings.

Fund transfers between certain entities, however, under French law can be viewed as graft and applicable bribery charges can be applied, sources close to the matter here said Wednesday.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has said the account that received the payment from the Tokyo team, was the same account used to transfer funds in the cover-up of a Russian doping case. Enditem