Cover news reporter Zhong Yuheng
There has been another corruption scandal in the international sports world. On July 4, Sergio Cabral, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, testified in court that he had paid $2 million to buy ballots to ensure that Rio de Janeiro would be the host city of the 2016 Olympic Games, Reuters reported.
Cabral told the judges that before the official vote in 2009, the money went to lamin Diack, the former president of the International Athletics Federation, through the "middleman" to buy up to nine votes, and finally Rio de Janeiro beat Madrid, Chicago and Tokyo to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Reuters also said diack or his team of lawyers could not be immediately contacted that night on Thursday and therefore could not get a response from the client.
Cabral told a federal judge that Rio Organizing Committee CEO Arthur Nuzman strongly "recommended" Lamin Diack to him at the time, "and he said to me, 'I want to tell you IAAF President Diack, he's easy to accept bribes.'" ’”
Cabral also said Nuzman assured him that the plan would work because Diack had a history of doing so ( taking bribes ) . Cabral confessed that Diack guaranteed up to 6 votes for $1.5 million, and then came back to say that if he got another $500,000 extra, he would offer a total of nine votes. Cabral paid a total of $2 million in bribes to Diack.
"We did it". Cabral said so in court. In his testimony, the former governor also listed several top athletes involved in bribery, including Russian swimmer Alexander Popov and Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka, both of whom have denied the allegation.
According to Carapur, the imprisoned former Brazilian president Luiz inacio lula da silva and former mayor Eduardo Paes were not involved in the plan but were told afterwards.
According to reports, Cabral disclosed all of the above at a hearing requested by his new defense team. The public confession tactic was part of his plea deal in the hope of reducing the sentences he and his wife, Adriana Ancelmo, who was jailed for corruption. It is reported that Karabul has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for a series of corrupt acts.
In the official vote on October 3, 2009, Rio de Janeiro defeated Madrid by 66 votes to 32 votes and won the right to host the 31st Summer Olympic Games in 2016.
In November 2016, less than three months after the rio Olympics closed, Carrapur was arrested on suspicion of bribery and other crimes.
A year later, Rio's organizing committee chief executive Arthur Nuzman was also arrested for his involvement in a bribery case in Karabul. Former IAAF President Diack, who accepted the $2 million bribe, is being charged and judicially scrutinized in Paris, France, for alleged corruption.