BULGARIA: OLYMPIC GAMES - BULGARIAN INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEMBER IVAN SLAVKOV EXPELLED OVER CORRUPTION CHARGES

Record ID: 501182

  • Title: BULGARIA: OLYMPIC GAMES - BULGARIAN INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEMBER IVAN SLAVKOV EXPELLED OVER CORRUPTION CHARGES
  • Date: 7th July 2005
  • Summary: FILE SOFIA, BULGARIA (AUGUST 3, 2004) (REUTERS) ***CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NOW DISMISSED IOC MEMBER IVAN SLAVKOV ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) NOW DISMISSED IOC MEMBER IVAN SLAVKOV SAYING: "I have been advised by my lawyers in the UK, in Switzerland and in Bulgaria, because the case is for a civil court and an sports arbitration court, also the case will be put before the Commission of Ethics on IOC, so I have been advised not to make any preliminary comments" (SOUNDBITE) (English) SERBIAN SPORTS AGENT GORAN TAKACH SAYING: "There was no money. There were two parts: the first part was a contract, which I was supposed to sign and the amount was close to one million euros; the second part was the money which would be necessary to buy the votes. But we did not come to the final sums" (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) IVAN SLAVKOV SAYING: "I have never agreed to anything, but I told you, I am not going to speak now"
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SOFIA, BULGARIA
  • Country: Bulgaria
  • Topics: Crime,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA8YIDW8PYZ5ZTQ0SGGGSROJIYR
  • Story Text: IOC member Slavkov expelled.
    Bulgarian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Ivan Slavkov was expelled on Thursday (July 7) because of allegations of corruption made in a television documentary, IOC members said.
    Slavkov and Serbian sports agent Goran Takach were shown discussing ways to secure votes for choosing the site of the 2012 Games with undercover journalists posing as business agents; the one-hour programme was broadcast in Britain by the BBC just before the Athens Olympics last August.
    London won the race to stage the 2012 Games 54-50 over Paris in the final round of voting on Wednesday.
    Slavkov has said he and Takach had tried to pull a reverse-sting operation to catch what they thought were
    "corrupters" of the Games bidding process.
    But the IOC suspended Slavkov last August and he was not allowed his accreditation for the 2004 Olympic Games.
    The IOC ethics commission launched an investigation into Slavkov and in November the Executive Board recommended that he be expelled from the organisation at this week's Session in Singapore for tarnishing its reputation.
    A two-thirds majority of the 114 members at the Session was required for Slavkov's expulsion.
    Three other people close to the Olympic movement and familiar with the bidding process also featured in the BBC Panorama documentary.
    Gabor Komyathy, Mahmood El Farnawani and director-general of the Olympic Council of Asia, Muttaleb Ahmad -- along with Takach -- were also condemned by the IOC at the time.
    The IOC withdrew the Olympic accreditations of the four and ruled them 'persona non grata' within the Olympic movement.
    Slavkov was accused in the 1998 Salt Lake City voting bribe scandal that shook the Olympic community, but he was later cleared.
    The IOC investigation into the Salt Lake corruption scandal led to 10 members resigning or being expelled in connection with bribery and to a tightening of the rules governing contact between IOC members and bidding cities; it also resulted in the establishment of the ethics commission.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register