LAUSANNE: Frankie Fredericks has quit as chairman of the 2024 Olympic Games bid evaluation commission after a report linking him to a payment on the very day of the 2016 Games host vote in 2009.

French newspaper Le Monde published the claim on Friday concerning the Namibian who won silver in the 100m and 200m at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.

Fredericks has denied any wrongdong however his role had come into question because of the allegations. He has been succeeded by Patrick Baumann, secretary-general of international basketball association FIBA and president of the umbrella body SportAccord.

According to the newspaper report, Matlock Capital Group paid $1.5 million to Pamodzi Consulting, a company founded by Papa Massata Diack, ahead of the 2016 Olympic hosting vote and transferred another $500,000 to Diack’s Russian bank account.

Diack is a former marketing director at the IAAF and son of the organization’s former president, Lamine Diack.

Fredericks who had a marketing contract with Pamodzi Sports Consulting from 2007-11,

Both Diacks are being investigated by French prosecutors on corruption charges linked to covering up Russian doping cases in a separate scandal. Papa Massata Diack was banned for life as part of that investigation.

Matlock Capital Group, the newspaper says, is a holding company linked to Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho.

Le Monde says Diack transferred $299,300 to Yemi Limited, the company linked to Fredericks, on Oct. 2, the same day Rio won a vote to host the 2016 Olympics and bring the games to South America for the first time.

On Monday Fredericks was replaced as a member of the tasforce of the International Association of Athletics Federation working on the readmittance to competition of Russia.

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