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Olympic 'fixer' faces extradition
VENICE, Italy (CNN) -- An Italian court has ordered the extradition of a Russian alleged to have fixed the figure skating event at Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov lost his fight against extradition to the United States on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bribe. He is alleged to have fixed it so that Russian skaters Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal in the pairs and the French pair Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat would win the gold in ice dancing, which is what happened. The 53-year-old Russian has appealed against the extradition decision by the Venice court and still has the chance to make an appeal to Italy's Higher Court with the final approval going before the Italian justice minister. No date has been set for the hearing. Tokhtakhounov was indicted in New York in August. U.S. prosecutors allege he used his influence on the Russian and French judges and would have benefited financially if the Russians won. The day after the contests, a French judge said she was pressured to vote for the Russians, who slipped during their routine. They won ahead of the popular choice of Canadian pair, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, sparking media fury in the West. Russia's media defended the judges' decision, but the row resulted in a duplicate set of gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team. U.S. prosecutors allege Tokhtakhounov, who lived in France, carried out the scheme to generate goodwill with French authorities to get an extension of his French visa, Reuters said.
Italian authorities were investigating Tokhtakhounov, a native of Uzbekistan living in Italy, on other matters when they came across telephone conversations in which Tokhtakhounov is alleged to have set up the fix, said Financial Police Commander Giovanni Mainolfi last August. Tokhtakhounov was arrested in late July in Tuscany in a police operation code-named "East Money," which targeted alleged members of the eastern European mafias operating in Italy. He is jailed in Venice on the U.S. charges of fixing the Olympic event only. Tokhtakhounov denies any wrongdoing, and his lawyer said his client does not have the influence to fix an Olympics contest in the United States. Tokhtakhounov's lawyer has delayed the case in the past by arguing that the prosecution documentation, including the charges, had to be translated into Russian for his client. Tokhtakhounov faces up to five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on each of the five counts, if convicted. -- Correspondent Alessio Vinci contributed to this report.
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