US federal prosecutors are conducting an extensive investigation into global sports corruption, including at Fifa and the international and US Olympics organisations, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a grand jury subpoena.
As part of the investigation, the justice department is looking at possible racketeering, money laundering and fraud charges related to the world athletics championships and the business executives who have consulted on bids for various other elite competitions, the Times reported.
The investigation is being conducted by the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York in Brooklyn, which has previously investigated Fifa and systematic doping in Russia. “The office can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation,” Tyler Daniels, spokesman for the US attorney’s office, told the Guardian.
The subpoena, one of a number that were delivered in January, solicited documents, testimony and financial records dating to 2013. Since then, the United States has won bids to host the 2021 world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The subpoena did not explicitly refer to the Los Angeles Olympics bid, but did focus on the world governing body for track and field, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the newspaper said. The IAAF awarded the sport’s 2019 world championships to Doha, Qatar, and the 2021 event to Eugene.
The people asked to provide information, including personal and corporate bank records, were expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn as soon as this week, the Times reported.
A spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee declined to comment on Wednesday and a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to a request, the newspaper reported. A spokeswoman for the IAAF said it had not been contacted by US investigators.
