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At least $55 million USD was deposited and or withdrawn from Standard Chartered Bank accounts connected to Lamine Diack former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Some of the money exchanges were done by his son Papa Massata Diack. NBC News reported the suspicious transactions following a leak from the Financial Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Bank records reported by NBC News show that 112 transactions to and from the accounts, allegedly controlled by the Diacks, are being investigated into alleged corruption regarding the respective awarding of the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
It is also alleged that Papa Massata Diack personally benefited by awarding the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships by approximately $500,000.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic committee apparently made payments totalling $2.3 million which were transferred to an account belonging to a friend of Papa Massata Diack in Singapore.
The Japanese deny that they paid any money to Papa Massata Diack.
Last week, the 87-year-old Lamine Diack was sentenced to four years in jail, but he will only serve two. He was convicted of corruption in Paris after an investigation into cover-ups of multiple doping cases for cash.
Papa Massata, the former IAAF marketing consultant, was also found guilty and was jailed for five years, however, Senegal will not recognise France’s extradition to Paris to stand trial. The son, who Lamine referred to as a thug, remains in Dakar.
Black Tidings Consultancy
Allegedly, the payment was made shortly after the time the Japanese capital was awarded the right to host the 2020 Olympics Games.
The company is called Black Tidings. The Singapore-based firm is now defunct. Apparently, there is no trace of what happened with the money. However, the transactions are a red flag that justifies an investigation.
Tsunekazu Takeda, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, admitted that he signed off on the payment, however, denied any wrongdoing. He was forced to resign from his position and from the IOC in 2019 as he also faced an investigation by French authorities.
The trail of deceit is an ultramarathon event in itself, there were several others who were charged, convicted, and sentenced. Some have ties to the shenanigans that went on in Russia to do with systematic doping.
The others
Former IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev, also convicted in his absence handed the Russian a three-year jail sentence. Apparently, money would be confiscated from his account in Monaco, where the IAAF is based. Balakhnichev plans to appeal.
“I have been deprived of the legal right to defend myself. They said that I was not cooperating with the investigation and I categorically disagree with that,” he said.
Dr. Gabriel Dolle oversaw drug testing at the IAAF, was handed a two-year suspended jail term. He was fined $163,000.
Lawyer Habib Cisse was found guilty. He was Diack’s lawyer when at the IAAF. The judge determined that Cisse was integral in the corruption that took place in the sporting organization. Russian coach Alexei Melnikov, who was tried and sentenced in his absence.
