Tokyo Bid Cleared in Vote-Buying Scandal; Questions Remain

(ATR) An independent inquiry says there is no evidence the Tokyo 2020 bid made an illegal payment to a Singapore consulting company.

The three-man panel commissioned by the Japanese Olympic Committee concluded Thursday that Tokyo 2020 bid chiefs were not guilty of any wrongdoing.

"The investigation concludes that the contents and execution process of the payment are not in violation of any Japanese law," inquiry chair Yoshihisa Hayakawa told a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. "Any violation of the IOC code of ethics also could not be found."

An investigation was launched at the end of May into a $2 million payment made by the Tokyo bid to Singaporean company Black Tidings for consultancy work amid allegations it was used to win support for Japan’s Olympic campaign.

Over the summer, the IOC’s chief ethics and compliance officer was in contact with French prosecutors who have investigated the Tokyo 2020 bid payments as part of a wider probe into the disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack and his son Papa Massata Diack.

Ian Tan Tong Han, the head of Black Tidings, had links to Papa Diack. But the JOC’s investigation said bid leaders were not aware of links between Tan and Diack. Tan had deserved the payment for his work in intelligence gathering and lobbying for the bid, it said.

The role of former Tokyo 2020 bid chief and IOC member Tsunekazu Takeda has come under intense scrutiny in the past few months since the allegations first emerged.

Takeda has gone on record as saying the payment – paid in two tranches before Tokyo’s September 2013 victory in the 2020 bid race – was a legitimate consultancy fee and fully audited.

However, the JOC panel noted that the payment to Han was double what was paid to other consultants, the AP reported.

The independent investigation is undermined by the fact that the panel failed to speak with Tan or Papa Diack. Some official bid documents were reportedly not available either, because they had been destroyed after the 2020 campaign ended in September 2013.

The conclusions relied only on analysis of bid documents accessible via former Tokyo 2020 members and testimony from around 30 hearings.

"I am personally very disappointed that, despite initial indications by their lawyers that a meeting was possible, we were not able to interview the Diacks," investigation chief Hayakawa was quoted by the Guardian newspaper.

"If we could have met Tan, I’m sure we could have examined what exactly happened in this case. I am still holding out hope that we can speak to all three of them."

The Japanese Olympic Committee did not respond to Around the Rings questions about the investigation’s conclusions.

However, Tokyo 2020 issued a statement once again distancing itself from the workings of the former bid committee which won Olympic hosting rights.

"Tokyo 2020 is aware that the Japanese Olympic Committee published a report regarding the consultancy agreement between the bid committee and the bid consultant Black Tidings. The Tokyo 2020 organising committee was established after the selection of the host city and we are therefore not in a position to comment further on this matter," it said.

"Our mission remains to deliver the best possible Games in 2020. We will continue our utmost efforts to prepare the best environment for the athletes to perform in and to leave lasting memories for people in Japan and across the world."

Reported by Mark Bisson

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