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Topic: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited (Read 748 times)

Rhune
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Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« on: Jul 31^st, 2002, 3:02pm »

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that an alleged overseas organized crime figure has been arrested in Italy on U.S. charges of conspiring to fix the outcome of certain skating competitions in the 2002 Winter Olympics ( news - web sites) in Salt Lake City.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was arrested by Italian law enforcement authorities with the assistance of the FBI ( news - web sites), prosecutors said.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office has scheduled a news conference to release details of the case.

A spokesman for that office said the arrest was believed to be related to the scandal involving French skating judge Marie Reine Le Gougne, who said she had been pressured by French figure skating President Didier Gailhaguet to vote for a Russian couple in the Olympic pairs.

The International Skating Union ( news - web sites) voted April 30 to suspend Le Gougne and Gailhaguet for three years. They were also barred from participation in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin. Last week Le Gougne said she was dropping an appeal against the ban.

Earlier this month, Gailhaguet also abandoned plans to fight the ban he received for his part in the affair.

Le Gougne was accused of deliberately under-marking Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier under pressure from Gailhaguet in favor of Russian rivals Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, who won the event in a 5-4 judging split.

The scandal shook the Olympics and in an unprecedented move, gold medals were eventually also awarded to the Canadians.

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Kramer
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Re: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« Reply #1 on: Aug 1^st, 2002, 6:35am »

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Its nice to see that they took the entire scandal seriously and followed up on it....something needs to be changed, hopefully this will provide the forward momentum to make the appropriate changes.

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Rhune
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Re: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« Reply #2 on: Aug 1^st, 2002, 10:47am »

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I agree, something needs to be changed in the way that whole fiasco was handled. Here's another article on it:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Top Russian Olympic and figure skating officials Thursday dismissed allegations that Uzbek-born Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov fixed skating results at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

"It's all looks like complete idiocy," Leonid Tyagachyov, president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), was quoted as saying by Russian media.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, also the holder of French and Israeli passports, was arrested at his Italian residence on Wednesday over a scheme to fix two Olympic figure skating contest on behalf of French and Russian athletes.

He faces extradition to the United States.

U.S. federal prosecutors said they had charged the man, known as "Taivanchik" or "the Taiwanese" in2q various circles, with plotting to swap victory for Russia in pairs competition in exchange for a gold medal for France in ice dancing.

"I just can't imagine that anybody, outside of sports, can be involved in such thing as trying to fix the results," Tyagachyov was quoted as saying from Lausanne, Switzerland.

"In any case, this is news to me because I have never seen this man myself."

Nikolai Dolgopolov, an executive board member of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (RFSF), had a similar view.

"I know almost every skater, coach, official or judge in the sport and I also attended every single skating competition in Salt Lake City, but I have never come across this name," Dolgopolov told Reuters.

"The whole story is such complete nonsense that it's just not even worth commenting on it. You can only laugh at it."

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ROC spokesman Gennady Shvets said Russian sports and Olympic officials had had no contacts with Tokhtakhounov despite his big influence in Russian sporting circles.

"He is a really tremendous, sociable guy -- tough and strong-willed," said Shvets. "He was involved in sports and show business. He often helped people with money."

In Salt Lake City, Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze edged out the Canadian duo of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier for the gold medal by a slim 5-4 vote.

The outcome produced a huge public outcry in North America and Sale and Pelletier were later awarded duplicate gold medals after French judge Marie Reine Le Gougne said she was pressured by the French figure skating president to vote for the Russians.

France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won the ice dancing crown from Russian couple Ilya Averbukh and Irina Lobacheva by the same 5-4 vote.

According to U.S. investigators, Italian police intercepted Tokhtakhounov's telephone conversations with a "female ice dancer" and her mother, where he promised them the gold medal.

"I will make you the Olympic champion even if you fall," said Tokhtakhounov, who has lived in France for some time.

Police did not identify the skater by name.

U.S.-based Averbukh, who won two world junior ice dancing titles with Anissina in the mid-1990s, also dismissed the allegations.

"The whole story looks so bizarre to me right now that it must be complete rubbish," the skater told Reuters from his home in Delaware.

"The skating world is such a closely-knit family that it is very hard for anyone to have any ties with the skating community and go unnoticed. So I'm sure I would have known or heard this name before if it (the story) was true."

"Well, since the FBI ( news - web sites) and the prosecutors are involved in this case, I'll be paying more attention to what comes out of it. If it turns out to be true, then we'll see what happens next," Averbukh added. "But in any case, I don't think we will be crying and begging like the Canadians for the gold medal."

Attempts to contact the French skaters and skating federation Thursday proved unsuccessful.

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Rhune
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Re: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« Reply #3 on: Aug 2^nd, 2002, 9:24am »

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Olympic gold medallists Anton Sikharulidze and Yelena Berezhnaya threatened on Friday to sue U.S. television networks after their photographs were used in reports on Russian organized crime and Olympic fixing.

Sikharulidze told NTV television that the skaters' pictures had been used in news reports which said that an Uzbek-born businessman had been held on charges of fixing two Olympic figure skating competitions.

Italian police, who arrested Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov at his Italian home, described him as "the senior member of a money-laundering group."

"What I saw was our photographs and when they were shown the report said something about some Russian mafia and organized crime," Sikharulidze told NTV television from St. Petersburg, with partner Berezhnaya at his side.

"We and people working with us are prepared to sue the TV companies."

He did not elaborate.

In Salt Lake City, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze edged out the Canadian duo of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier for the gold medal after a narrow 5-4 vote.

But the result caused a furor that engulfed the Games and the Canadian runners-up were belatedly given gold. The outcry also resulted in three-year bans for French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne and her federation chief Didier Gailhaguet.

Le Gougne later said she had been pressured by the French figure skating president to vote for the Russians.

"If they had any common sense, Canadians and all North Americans would calm down and be happy they were given gold medals as a gift, " Sikharulidze said.

The Russian Olympic Committee said on Friday it had already called a special meeting with lawyers, adding it would stand by the athletes if they took their complaint to court.

"Without a doubt, even before lawyers get involved, I can say that we will support their case because we have to defend the dignity of our Olympic athletes," spokesman Gennady Shvets told Reuters.

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Rhune
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Re: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« Reply #4 on: Aug 2^nd, 2002, 9:26am »

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on Aug 2^nd, 2002, 9:24am, Rhune wrote:

"If they had any common sense, Canadians and all North Americans would calm down and be happy they were given gold medals as a gift, " Sikharulidze said.

oooooooh....now them's fightin' words....
:steamed:

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Rhune
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Re: Winter Olympics Judging Scandal Revisited
« Reply #5 on: Aug 2^nd, 2002, 9:55am »

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VENICE, Italy (AP) -- A suspected Russian mobster might have contacted as many as six judges in trying to fix a pair of figure skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympics, Italian police said. An Italian organized-crime unit revealed details of their operation Thursday, a day after arresting suspect Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov in Venice on U.S. conspiracy charges.

Tokhtakhounov is accused of scheming to persuade a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. Both teams won gold.

The judging flap in the pairs skating, the biggest in Olympics history, resulted in a duplicate set of gold medals being awarded to the Canadian team that was voted second to the Russians.

A week after the pairs competition, the ice dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won France's first gold in figure skating since 1932.

"Everybody wants to claim a part of our victory at the Olympic Games for themselves," Peizerat told The Associated Press. "The judges think it's thanks to them that we're Olympic champions, top skating officials do too, now it's the Russian mafia."

In exchange for fixing the events, U.S. prosecutors say, the reputed mobster wanted a visa to return to France, where he once lived

Russian sports officials derided the accusations Thursday. One called the allegations a "funny fantasy" that belonged in a Hollywood film script, not a U.S. federal court affidavit.

Tokhtakhounov is expected to plead innocent to all charges and fight extradition, said his lawyer, Luca Salvarelli, who had not yet met with his client. "According to what his relatives told me, he will deny any wrongdoing," the lawyer said. "He claims he is innocent."

Italian police said Tokhtakhounov held a phone conversation with a French man, whom police said was identified on the tape as "Chevalier." The suspect also made references to judges, although none were heard speaking on the tapes.

Police said they did not know the names of the judges.

"We have recorded a conversation in which the suspect indicates that six judges may have been involved," police Col. Giovanni Mainolfi said. "However, we have no specific evidence against these judges at this time."

Wiretaps used in an organized crime investigation captured a series of telephone calls between Tokhtakhounov in Italy and unnamed conspirators during the games. Those calls "lay out a pattern of conduct that connects those two events," U.S. Attorney James Comey said.

The suspect "arranged a classic quid pro quo: 'You'll line up support for the Russian pair, we'll line up support for the French pair and everybody will go away with the gold, and perhaps there'll be a little gold for me,"' Comey said.

Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal by the slimmest of margins in pairs figure skating, defeating Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. But French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the next day she'd been pressured to vote for the Russians, who slipped during their routine while the Canadians were flawless.

"We did our job, and that's all that matters, and we're moving on to bigger and better things, and we're trying not to become involved because it has really nothing to do with us except for the fact that it was our event," Sale said Thursday on NBC's Today show.

Sale and Pelletier said the sport needs reform, but no system will be perfect.

"Anything that has subjective judging is always going to be like that," Sale said.

"When you race against time, what's involved is doping, so every sport has something," Pelletier said.

Le Gougne later recanted but still was suspended, as was Didier Gailhaguet, the head of the French skating federation.

"I don't know this man, I have no contact with him," Le Gougne told The Associated Press on Thursday, referring to Tokhtakhounov. "I don't understand anything about this affair. This affair doesn't concern me."

She said she never had any contact with any Russian in deciding whom to vote for in the pairs competition. "For me, the Russians were the best," she said.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said: "While we knew from previous investigations that the judgment in the pairs figure skating was not correct, we are shocked to learn of the alleged involvement of organized crime."

The U.S. Olympic Committee, in a letter to Rogge, said it shared his "call to aggressive action."

"Any connection between organized crime and the Olympic Games must be dealt with in the strongest possible manner, using all available resources and means," it said.

Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said the Russian pair won fairly and suggested the new allegations were part of an effort to justify the decision to award a second gold. "Now this funny fantasy appears," he said.

"It is more like a cinematic subject, a synopsis of a film script," he added.

U.S. investigators said Wednesday that they had obtained recorded telephone conversations between Tokhtakhounov and a French ice dancer, in which the suspect brags about being able to influence the outcome of competitions.

The U.S. complaint said wiretaps caught the defendant talking to a female ice dancer's mother. After the Olympics, the female ice dancer called Tokhtakhounov to discuss the outcome, the complaint said.

It was unclear exactly when the suspect might be extradited to the United States, but the process can last more than a month and could be delayed by the judiciary's summer recess.

Mainolfi said Italian authorities came upon the Olympic case by accident. They were investigating other activities involving the suspect when they came across the conversations.

"The investigation began more than a year ago," he said. "We are still investigating about 50 other suspects."

Russia's Alexandr Gorshkov, chairman of the ISU ice dance committee and referee for the event, couldn't be reached Thursday. But in February during the Olympics, he said he was unaware who, if anyone, from his country might have been involved in any vote-swapping deal with the French.

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