JO 2016 : the president of the brazilian olympic committee arrested for corruption

Carlos Nuzman was arrested Thursday, October 5, in Brazil, reported the brazilian police. The president of the brazilian olympic committee and the organising committee of the olympic Games in Rio is suspected of having bought votes to get the olympics in 2016. Carlos Nuzman, 75, is accused of the offences of " bribery, money-laundering and participation in a criminal organisation ", according to the press release issued by the police.

On 5 September, Mr. Nuzman, who declared himself the" happiest man in the world " during the closing ceremony of the olympic Games in Rio in August 2016, had been interrogated for several hours by the federal police. He had had to explain to serious presumptions of corruption and on the origin of the 480 000 reais (129 000 euros) in cash discovered at his home in Leblon, an upscale neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, during a search. This operation was attended by representatives from the French police and justice, including the famous judge anti-corruption Renaud Van Ruymbeke.

Simultaneously, the French authorities had sifted through the home of a middle-brazilian installed in France, in the framework of an investigation opened in 2015 in France on the suspicion of corruption in the elections of the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.The justice suspects the former boss of the organizing committee of Rio 2016 to have participated in the purchase of votes of the members of the international olympic Committee (IOC) when the Games were awarded to Brazil, in October 2009. The Carioca would be a central part of a vast and complex scheme of kickbacks, passing by tax havens to Senegal.

The ex-governor of Rio, Sergio Cabral – who is currently serving a sentence of fourteen years in prison for passive corruption and money laundering is also believed to have been the brains of this operation, which would have had to object to the payment of bribes for a total amount of 2 million dollars to the Senegalese Papa Massata Diack, son of the former president of the international athletics Federation and ex-IOC member Lamine Diack.