The Diacks, Lamine and his son Papa Massata Diack have been implicated in various corruption-related crimes. Papa Massata is in his native Senegal while Lamine has been extradited to France and is awaiting his delayed trial in Paris.
Apparently a former executive at Japanese marketing agency Dentsu was given millions of dollars to help Tookyo’s 2020 Olympic bid.
Papa Massata was implicated for taking approximately $500,000 for the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships bid.
From Inside the Games
A former executive at Japanese marketing agency Dentsu, who was given millions of dollars to help Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has claimed he played a crucial role in securing the support of officials including Lamine Diack.
According to Reuters, Haruyuki Takahashi was paid $8.2 million (£6.6 million/€7.5 million) for his work, which included lobbying senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, by Tokyo’s Bid Committee.
Takahashi, reportedly the single largest recipient of money from the Committee, admitted he had given Diack gifts as part of his attempt to secure the vote of the disgraced former International Association of Athletics Federations President and other members.
The Tokyo 2020 Executive Committee member denied wrongdoing and claimed there was nothing improper with how he used the money, Reuters reported.
Takahashi insisted it was normal to give gifts, which reportedly included watches and cameras, to the likes of Diack, who is among those suspected of taking bribes to help Japan’s bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Under International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules, the giving of gifts was not prohibited and there was no specific cap on the amount which could be spent on them.
“You don’t go empty-handed,” Takahashi told Reuters when asked about the gifts.
“That’s common sense.”
