The IOC Suspends Brazil’s Olympic Committee. Carlos Nuzman Arrested.

According to The Guardian, Carlos Nuzman, President of Brazil’s Olympic Committee for the last 22 years, and also President of the Organizing Committees for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, has been arrested in Brazil. In an investigation nicknamed Unfair Play, Brazil’s federal police worked together with France’s judicial system. Both organizations accuse Nuzman on bribery charges related to vote-buying in order to win Rio’s bid for 2016 Olympic’s games.

In the occasion, he acted as an intermediary for  payment of $2 million dollars to Pappa Diack, Senegalese member of the IOC, in order for him to vote favorably for Brazil in the Olympic bidding process. Nuzman is also being charged with having his vote bought in favor of Socchi’s candidature for the 2014 winter games. In the occasion, he also asked for a Russian passport, to use in the case of being investigated in Brazil.

Nuzman drew attention from federal authorities after having his fortune grow 457% in the last ten years, and being accused of tax evasion after having gold bars estimated at $700,000 found in a bank in Switzerland, enough gold to make all Olympic gold medals through the 2028 games. In an ironic turn of events, he will sleep in prison on mattresses from Rio’s Olympic Games, which were donated to the federal prisional system after the games.

As a response, the International Olympic Committee has decided to:

• To suspend Carlos Nuzman provisionally from all the rights, prerogatives and functions deriving from his quality as an IOC Honorary Member.
• To withdraw Carlos Nuzman from the Coordination Commission for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
• To suspend provisionally the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB).
• Subsidies and payments from the IOC to the COB are frozen.
• The COB is not allowed to exercise its membership rights in NOC associations.
• To protect the interests of the Brazilian athletes, this decision shall not affect the Brazilian athletes.
• Therefore, the IOC will accept a Brazilian Olympic Team in the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and in all other competitions under the umbrella of the COB with all rights and obligations.
• Olympic scholarships to Brazilian athletes will continue to be paid.