Brazil Olympic committee members and former Trump Hotel partner charged with corruption News
Brazil Olympic committee members and former Trump Hotel partner charged with corruption

[JURIST] Brazil’s federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged [text, PDF, in Portuguese] individuals instrumental in obtaining Brazil’s bid for the Olympic Games held last summer.

Most notable of those charged of bribery are Carlos Nuzman [BBC report], head of Brazil’s Olympic Committee, Leonardo Gryner, right-hand man of Nuzman on the committee, and Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho, former Trump Hotel Rio de Janeiro partner. Sergio Cabral, former governor Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state, was sentenced [JURIST report] to 14 years and two months in June for corruption and money laundering in connection to the Olympics.

Filho is considered a fugitive [NYT report] in the US. Brazil has attempted to extradite the accused former partner, but has claimed that the US has not cooperated with the international investigation. There have been no allegations made in connection with the Trump organization.

Evidence against former president Nuzman allegedly include undeclared gold bars and is part of [NPR report] a “scheme to channel $2 million to a former member of the International Olympics Committee — Lamine Diack from Senegal — to help ensure that Rio was elected as the venue for the games. They accuse Nuzman of having undeclared assets in Switzerland, including 16 gold bars, each weighing a kilo. Nuzman has denied any wrongdoing, and says he has been unjustly implicated in the scandal. Nuzman was arrested earlier this month and has been removed from his Olympic leadership positions.