{"id":13472,"date":"2017-10-19T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T11:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/10\/19\/president-of-rios-2016-olympic-bid-is-charged-with-corruption\/"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:49:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T11:49:00","slug":"president-of-rios-2016-olympic-bid-is-charged-with-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/president-of-rios-2016-olympic-bid-is-charged-with-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"President Of Rio's 2016 Olympic Bid Is Charged With Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bill Chappell<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Brazil’s Olympic Committee chief, Carlos Nuzman, resigned from his post after being arrested on Oct. 5. He’s seen here coming to the Brazilian Federal Police building in Rio de Janeiro for questioning on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

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Apu Gomes\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Apu Gomes\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Federal prosecutors in Brazil are charging former Brazilian Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman with helping to run a criminal organization and other crimes, in a scheme that paid for the votes that brought the Olympics to Rio de Janeiro last summer. The evidence includes undeclared assets in the form of 16 gold bars.<\/p>\n

Nuzman was arrested on Oct. 5, prompting him to resign as president of Brazil’s national Olympic committee. Prosecutors announced charges against him that range from corruption and money laundering to evading foreign currency laws.<\/p>\n

From Rio, NPR’s Philip Reeves reports for our Newscast unit:<\/p>\n

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“Brazilian and French authorities believe the 75-year-old was a key player in a scheme to channel $2 million to a former member of the International Olympics Committee \u2014 Lamine Diack from Senegal \u2014 to help ensure that Rio was elected as the venue for the games.<\/p>\n

“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’s been unjustly implicated in the scandal.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Prosecutors say Nuzman was an important part of a criminal operation that also included wealthy businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho and Rio’s former governor, S\u00e9rgio Cabral, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison this summer.<\/p>\n