Olympic Newsdesk -- Rio Olympics Scam; Suspension from Semenya Case

(ATR) Police in Rio de Janeiro dismantled a group that targeted rigging bids for government construction projects for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

Police arrested 12 individuals on corruption and conspiracy charges on Wednesday using raids with 120 officers. Police named the bust “Operation Monopoly.”

Falvio Porto, director of the Center for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering, said the alleged scammers reaped between $11.4 million and $55.4 since 2008 in colluding for government contracts. Twelve companies were involved in the scheme that overpriced government contracts by 10 to 20 percent.

"The group worked for three years and documents obtained today indicate that the injury to the public coffers was much greater," Porto told local media.

Investigators said the scheme started in 2000 and it involved businessmen, civil servants, an inspector and an engineer.

Porto said scammers targeted projects for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.

The scheme worked by having the winning bidder pay kickbacks between $6,000 and $15,000 to the other colluding companies. Firms not involved in the scheme would face trouble from corrupt civil servants, police said.

The investigation began when the Civil Police started looking into its own contracts. A total of 24 projects are under investigation including Lloyd George's Hospital.

The Center for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering began operations last year to investigate white-collar crimes. Operation Monopoly was the first major investigation for the center.

Athletics South Africa President and Board Suspended

The South Africa Olympic committee suspended the head of Athletics South Africa for lying about his actions in the Caster Semenya gender-testing controversy.

On Thursday, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee suspended ASA President Leonard Chuene along with the ASA board, pending the outcome of an investigation. The committee recommended SASCOC board member Ray Mali take over as the administrator of ASA.

In a statement, ASA offered an apology and agreed to abide by SACOC's ruling.

"Athletics South Africa wishes to publicly and unconditionally apologize to Caster Semenya and her family, the President of South Africa as well as to all South Africans for the handling of her gender verification processes and the subsequent aftermath," ASA said.

ASA said it would meet with Semenya, her family and government officials to "bring closure to a very unpleasant episode for Caster."

SASCOC is also considering taking action against the International Association of Athletics Federations for violating Semenya's rights to privacy. SASCOC did not specify the nature of the action.

Semenya gained attention after news broke that she was undergoing gender-testing by the IAAF. The IAAF has not released test results.

Semenya won the women’s 800 meter title at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August.

Ice Hockey Roster Window

The 12 men's hockey teams for Vancouver 2010 will announce rosters between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1. Final player registration date is due by Feb. 15.

Belarus will announce its roster first on Dec. 23. Canada announces its roster on Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, USA will announce its roster during the NHL Winter Classic played outdoors at Fenway Park in Boston.

Olympic competition begins Feb. 16 with USA facing off against Switzerland.

For a complete list of roster announcements, click here.

Briefly…

…NBC Universal Sports named Chris McCloskey as vice president of communications. McCloskey previously served as vice president of communications for the Arena Football League. Adam Freifeld, director of communications at NBC Sports, was promoted to senior director of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

…The International Sailing Federation began its 10-day annual conference in Busan, South Korea on Thursday. Safety guidelines, rule changes and a site for the 2011 Team World Championships are some of the topics up for discussion.

Written by Sam Steinberg.