KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- In the latest major sports bid scandal former Rio de Janeiro governor Sergio Cabral has revealed that he paid $2m for votes to swing the International Olympic Committee decision on awarding the 2016 Games to the city.

The admission was contained in a statement issued by Judge Marcelo Bretas of the 7th Court Federal Criminal who is overseeing one of the strands of the massive ‘Lava Jato’ (Car Wash) corruption conspiracy .

Cabral said former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and former mayor Eduardo Paes did not participate in the scheme but knew of the payments.

Sergio Cabral: already jailed for corruption

In June 2017 Cabral was sentenced to 14 years and two months in prison for corruption and money laundering in the Lava Jato case over the award of building contracts including the redevelopment of the Maracana stadium.

Now, in a statement to investigators, Cabral said the former president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, had appointed the then  International Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack as an intermediary.Diack is awaiting trial in France on separate corruption charges.

In addition to Cabral and Nuzman, former Olympic organisers’ director Leonardo Gryner and businessman Arthur Soares Filho, known as King Arthur, were charged with corruption on suspicion of buying votes. They deny all charges.
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Diack and his son, Papa Diack Massata, are accused of brokering the $2m settlement.In his testimony, Cabral said that in August 2009, during the campaign to bring the Olympic Games to Rio, he was approached by Nuzman, then president of the COB, for an “urgent meeting” after a sporting event in Rome.
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Cabral added: “I did not know what the repercussion of a very strong Europeanised nucleus [in voting] would be. Nuzman turns to me and says: ‘Sergio, I want to open you up to IAAF president Lamine Diack, he’s a person which is open to undue advantage, he can guarantee five or six votes, he wants $1.5m in return.”
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Under questioning Cabral said he had asked Nuzman where the vows would come from and what guarantee could be secured. The then president of the COB replied that they would be African members of the committee and also representatives of athletics.
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Among the names cited by Cabral as having sold their votes were two Olympic superstars in Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka and Russian swimmer Alexander Popov, four times Olympic gold medalist.Both have denied the allegations.
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After the meeting, Cabral said he would trust Nuzman to handle this negotiation. He stated, however, that he would get a trustworthy businessman to make the necessary payments for the agreement.
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“I called the [businessman] Arthur Soares and I told him about the need to get the money for the votes. This was debited from the credit I had with him . . . and they organised it with this Papa Massata Diack, Lamine Diack’s son.”Cabral said that in September 2009 in Paris, Gryner and Nuzman warned him about “a problem” and the need to secure more votes for Rio.
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Nuzman told him Papa Massata Diack had said he would obtain more votes to make it at least nine in all. Cabral added: “He said he needed another $500,000. I told him it would be done.”That was on September 14 and payment was made two weeks later.
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The defendants have all denied all the allegations and charges.
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Nuzman’s lawyers have said he “vehemently denies” the claims, that he did not receive a penny and never coordinated any conspiracy.
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A statement added: “He did not stand to make any benefit from the work which took place after the victory in 2009. As for what Cabral said about buying votes: he has been sentenced to 200 years in prison and will say anything.
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“Even if it happened, it would be a private corruption, which is not a crime in Brazil. “