UPDATED: Documents Detail Rio 2016 African Strategy

(ATR) Bid leaders for the Rio 2016 Olympics visited numerous African IOC leaders in the months leading up to the IOC vote in 2009 – and a large payment from a Brazilian businessman to Papa Massata Diack, says a Brazilian report.

According to Agencia Sportlight, a Brazilian investigative outlet, Brazil Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman visited a number of African sports leaders ahead of the 2009 Athletics World Championships. At the championships Nuzman, along with Rio State Governor Sergio Cabral, met with Papa Diack’s father Lamine, a supremely influential IOC member.

Courting international votes ahead of an IOC Session is not unusual for Olympic bids, nor is it against IOC rules. Rather, investigators, according to reports from Le Monde and The Guardian are curious about a payment made from businessman Arthur Soares to Papa Diack in September 2009.

Soares is an influential developer in Rio de Janeiro and has been heavily connected to Cabral, during his time as governor. Cabral was forced to resign his position in 2014 due to a corruption scandal, and has been jailed for charges stemming from corrupt contracts in the renovation of the Maracana.

Reports in Le Monde show that French prosecutors are investigating a $1.5 million payment from Soares to Diack. Prosecutors are investigating if the payment was made to the Diack family to ensure the vote of African IOC members for Rio 2016.

A subsequent payment from Papa Diack to IOC member Frank Fredericks was since uncovered in the investigation. Fredericks denies the payment was related to votes for the Rio 2016 Olympics, but has since stepped down from his IOC and International Association of Athletics Federations positions. The Athletics Integrity Unit subsequently suspended Fredericks from the IAAF Council.

Papa Diack’s lifetime athletics ban was recently upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Diack was accused of pocketing bribes in exchange for covering up positive doping tests.

Rio 2016 bid marketing director Leonardo Gryner, reported bySportlight,met with then-IOC member Mohammed Mzali in Tunisia. Cables in the report showed the Mzali hoped to secure a meeting with Nuzman at the 2009 Athletics World Championships.

The Brazilian documents obtained by Sportlight show Nuzman and Gryner visiting Egypt, Cameroon, Guinea, Kenya, Uganda, and the Gambia. The pair reportedly met with IOC member Kip Keino in Kenya.In Cameroon, cables produced by the Brazilian embassy reportedly show Cameroon National Olympic and Sports Committee President Hamad Kalkaba pledging support from African NOCs.

"The CNOSC president added that he will defend the Brazilian proposal at the next General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA)," a Brazilian diplomat wrote in documents obtained by Sportlight.

Kalkaba told Around the Ringsthat no such meeting took place, and he had not met with a Brazilian diplomat ahead of the 2009 ANOCA General Assembly.

"As with many people I liked the concept of an Olympic Games being hosted in the emerging world," Kalkaba said in a statement. "However I did not attend a meeting at the Brazilian Embassy in Cameroon with members of the Rio 2016 bid committee or Brazilian diplomats. I ask that the media do not repeat this inaccuracy and also that the Brazilian diplomat correctly identifies who attended his meeting so the record can be put straight".

Other cables mentioned that ANOCA previously supported Beijing en masse for the 2008 Olympic bid race. Rio officials traveling throughout Africa also offered invitations to African officials "to come to Brazil under the pretext of observers of competitions held in the country."

Sportlightreports that Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs alerted African embassies of the bid’s international promotion plans and collaborations it hoped to arrange.

One statement read "in the context of the campaign to publicize the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Olympic Committee plans to carry out a mission together to some African Olympic committees in the months of July and August."

It is unclear what was discussed between Rio 2016 officials and Diack ahead of the 2009 IOC Session. French prosecutors are interested in Soares’ payments to Diack, and according to the Miami Herald Brazilian investigators continue to investigate the businessman.

Cabral offered to turn over evidence of corruption against Soares as part of a proposed plea deal to reduce his jail sentence in Rio de Janeiro. Prosecutors turned down Cabral’s offer according to the Herald.

Cabral may not be the only Rio 2016 government official in legal trouble, as Brazilian authorities investigate claims made by Odebrecht executives against former Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes. Last month the Rio municipal head of infrastructure Alexandre Pinto was arrested on corruption charges stemming from Olympic contracts as part of the Lava Jato investigation. Paes has denied all claims against him.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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