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'Six judges' in Olympic fix probe

FBI said Tokhtakhounov was involved in drug distribution, illegal firearms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles
FBI said Tokhtakhounov was involved in drug distribution, illegal firearms sales and trafficking in stolen vehicles  


MOSCOW, Russia -- An alleged mobster charged with fixing skating results at the Salt Lake Olympic Games may have contacted up to six judges as part of the operation, Italian police have said.

Alimzan Tokhtakhounov is accused of plotting to persuade a French judge to vote for Russian ice skaters and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team.

Italian police say they used wiretaps to capture a series of telephone calls between Tokhtakhounov in Italy and unnamed conspirators during the 2002 games, in which he is alleged to have named Olympic judges.

"We have recorded a conversation in which the suspect indicates that six judges may have been involved," police Colonel Giovanni Mainolfi told The Associated Press. "However, we have no specific evidence against these judges at this time."

U.S. Attorney James Comey said the suspect "arranged a classic quid pro quo: 'You'll line up support for the Russian pair, we'll line up support for the French pair and everybody will go away with the gold, and perhaps there'll be a little gold for me,"' Comey said.

But Russian sports officials dismissed the accusations against Tokhtakhounov.

RESOURCES
Read the sealed complaint: U.S. v. Tokhtakhounov  (FindLaw document; PDF format)
 

The allegations "cannot be serious," a spokesman for the Russian Olympic Committee said on Thursday.

"He is not involved with figure skating, and this is a closed world," spokesman Gennady Shvets told AP.

The accusations may have resulted from the suspect's propensity for boasting, he added. "He may be a fan... but the fact that he could not have influenced results is absolutely certain."

Tokhtakhounov is accused of brokering a deal in which Russian skaters Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze would be awarded the gold medal in the pairs competition in return for a French pair, Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat, winning the gold in ice dancing. Anissina and Peizerat did win the ice dancing competition.

A French judge said the next day she had been put under pressure to vote for the Russians, who slipped during their routine while a Canadian pair, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, were virtually flawless. The judging row resulted in a duplicate set of gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team.

Sale, pictured with Pelletier:
Sale, pictured with Pelletier: "It doesn't take away anything from what we did. We're still proud"  

Tokhtakhounov, an Uzbek-born Russian citizen, was arrested on Wednesday in Italy on U.S. conspiracy charges. A federal prosecutor said he had been the target of an investigation by the FBI's organised crime task force for more than a year.

U.S. officials are seeking his extradition to face one count of bribery to influence a sporting competition and one count of wire fraud. If convicted, Tokhtakhounov could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and fined up to $250,000 on both charges.

Italian officials said on Thursday that Tokhtakhounov would be extradited to the United States, most likely after Italian judges return from their annual holidays in September.

Italian authorities were investigating the man on other matters when they came across telephone conversations in which he apparently set up the fix, Financial Police Commander Giovanni Mainolfi told CNN.

The complaint against Tokhtakhounov accuses other unnamed co-conspirators of involvement in the scheme.

Russian Olympic Committee chief Leonid Tyagachev told Russian network TVS it was "out of the question" that Tokhtakhounov could have influenced the Olympic games.

Canadian figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, who judges originally awarded the silver medal to, said on Wednesday they were not surprised by charges that their competition was fixed. (Full story)

"It's figure skating," Sale said, smiling and throwing her hands up. "We just did our job at the Olympics. We did the best that we could... We still didn't even know the truth, and obviously now, everything is kind of coming out in the wash."

--CNN Producer Phil Hirschkorn and CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena contributed to this report



 
 
 
 






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