The Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) released a report today clearing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid Committee of any and all charges related to an alleged bribery scheme.
As reported back in May of last year, it was revealed that the Tokyo Olympic bid team had made a contribution to Singapore’s Black Tidings, a company who maintains a connection to the son of Lamine Diack, the disgraced former President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Diack resigned from that post late last year in the wake of allegations he helped cover up positive Russian doping tests, however, he was still a very influential IOC member in 2013 when Tokyo beat both Istanbul and Madrid in the bidding process for the 2020 Olympics.
As such, the Black Tidings payments totaling $2 million were red-flagged due to the fact that the company has close ties to the son and, therefore, could have potentially been used to lobby votes toward Tokyo as the host city of 2020.
However, the JOC conveyed today that the “investigation concludes that (the bid committee’s deals) are not in violation of any of the laws of Japan.”
“In addition, the investigation team concludes that it does not form any crime under the penal code of France, and furthermore, that no violation of the IOC code of ethics can be found.” (GamesBids)
The report continued, “What was most important for the team was to probe whether the bid committee in fact bribed someone. We think the investigation cleared the group of any suspicion in this regard.”