(ATR) IOC TOP Sponsor Samsung says Korean media allegations of illicit lobbying to secure votes for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics are "speculative reports".
This week Korean broadcaster SBS is running reports on emails found during the investigation of now-jailed President Park Geun-Hye. The reports allegedly show contact between Samsung executives and Papa Massata Diack over sponsorship contracts aimed at winning the 2018 Winter Olympics.
The emails showed a list of 27 IOC members who could be influenced in the 2018 bid race, and repeated contact with Diack. At the time Diack was a marketing consultant for the International Association of Athletics Federations, where his father Lamine Diack was president. Both Diacks have been under investigation by French authorities for corruption surrounding the solicitation of votes for other Olympic bids.
"The company has reviewed everything and found that, just like all the other general sponsorship contracts, its sponsorship with the federation was legal," Samsung said in its internal newsroom website in response to the SBS report.
Another message from Samsung aimed to clarify what the company believed were misrepresentation of facts by the SBS report.
Samsung said that it had never entered in any contracts with the two consulting companies associated with Papa Diack, and has regularly been a sponsor of marquee international events. Specifically, Samsung noted its sponsorship of the 2003 and 2007 IAAF Diamond Leagues in addition to its sponsorship in 2010. During each of those years PyeongChang was bidding for the Winter Olympics.
The company also disputes part of the report of Samsung working with Diack to sponsor the African Athletics Federation. The reports quote a member of Samsung staff in Senegal and references emails with Diack.
Samsung disputes the reporting that linked officers in the company’s Senegal office to the lobbying.
"SBS seems to have made speculative reports based on specific e-mails without confirming the basic facts, actual donation purpose, amount and results of this report," the Samsung statement said. "We ask SBS once again. Please do not raise suspicions based solely on specific emails, but please check and report the correct facts."
The IOC meanwhile put out a statement that distanced itself from the reports, saying that any new evidence found would be added to Lamine Diack’s Ethics Commission file. The statement did not reference Samsung or honorary member Kun Hee Lee.
Lee was pardoned by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak in 2009 ahead of PyeongChang’s third and final Olympic bid. Samsung has been a TOP Sponsor of the IOC since the 1990s.
"[Jacques] Rogge and [Gerhard] Heiberg, Marketing Commission Chair were warned back in 2003 about Samsung's aggressive lobbying efforts for PyeongChang," Michael Payne, former IOC Marketing director, wrote on twitter in response to the SBS reports.
SBS says the reports on the Samsung lobbying will run all week, and can be found here.
Written by Aaron Bauer
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