French prosecutor investigating suspected payment of Tokyo 2020

The French Prosecutor's office said Thursday that two million dollars related to the campaign of Tokyo for the 2020 summer Olympics apparently were deposited into an account linked to the son of the former President of the International Federation of athletics (IAAF), in the months before and after the Japanese capital will win headquarters.

The French financial crimes prosecutor's office said it received information about payments for 2.8 million Singaporeans, identified as "bid Tokyo Games Olympic 2020", made by a Japanese Bank the company Black Tidings in Singapore. It is believed that account in Singapore was the name of a close friend of Papa Massata Diack, son of the former President of the IAAF Lamine Diack.

The son is wanted by Interpol, and the father is being investigated in France. French prosecutors investigating corruption on the part of the Diack and relatives said that transfers took place in July and October 2013. Tokyo won the host of the games in September of that year, defeating Madrid and Istanbul in the vote of the International Olympic Committee. As a member of the IOC at the time, Diack father had a vote, as well as being an influential figure in Olympic circles. Black Tidings, that appears to be a company display in Singapore, has been linked by French prosecutors and a survey of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) with Papa Massata Diack, who worked as a consultant for marketing of the IAAF, which his father led for 16 years.

The Prosecutor's office said it received information in December on two transfers of the "bid Tokyo Games Olympic 2020". Prosecutors did not identify the source of its information or say what were the funds. But they noted that they have evidence of "major purchases" in Paris which were financed by Black Tidings. They did not give details on the purchases. Based on this and other evidence, the Prosecutor's office said it opened a record December 24, other than the research that was already open on the Diack, to "find out the reason for the transaction... and verify if there was corruption and money-laundering in the process of choosing the City headquarters of the Olympic Games in 2020".

In January, a survey from the AMA on corruption in the IAAF identified the owner of the account of Black Tidings as Ian as Tong have. He pointed out that it is as a friend of Papa Massata Diack who put Massata name to his son, who was born in 2014. Papa Massata Diack is wanted in France on charges of bribery, wash money and corruption. Interpol placed him on its list of wanted persons, and is believed to be in his native Senegal. His father, who left the Presidency of the IAAF in August, was accused by the French Prosecutor's office received more than one million euros (1.1 million dollars) in bribes in Exchange for hiding cases of doping.

In Tokyo, the organizers of the games denied having any knowledge of the alleged payments. The British newspaper The Guardian was the first reported suspicious transfers to Black Tidings, but without identifying sources. Tokyo 2020, Hikariko Ono, spokeswoman said in a statement that the Committee "is not aware of these accusations. We believe that the games were awarded to Tokyo because the city presented the best bid." The head of the Cabinet of the Government of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, insisted that the candidacy of Tokyo was Olympia.

He said that the Government has no plans to investigate the Organizing Committee, although he pointed out that "respond appropriately" If the French judicial authorities requested their cooperation. "We know that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo campaign unfolded cleanly," Suga said at press conference.

The IOC said that it has been in contact with French prosecutors since the beginning, and is now a civil party in the investigation. Lamine Diack resigned in November to his position as an honorary member of the IOC, after being a full member of the IOC for 15 years until 2014. Papa Massata Diack was disabled for life in January by the Commission of ethics of the IAAF by corruption and accusations that helped hide cases of doping. Appealed its sanctions to the Court of sports arbitration.

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Montagliani, insurance Executive leader of CONCACAF

Victor Montagliani did not have a brilliant career in the courts: it played at the amateur level with a club called Columbus and led the team of employees of an insurance company. It was precisely in the insurance sector in which Montagliani obtained success and fortune. And that experience is perhaps you very useful in his new role as President of CONCACAF.

The governing body of football in North and Central America and the Caribbean urgently requires a "policy" against corruption. Montagliani, of 50 years, exceeded by 25-16 to the Larry Mussenden Bermudian in the vote on Thursday between members of CONCACAF, which holds its Congress in the Mexican capital.

"I promise to work for you every day and be there for you, but I also hope their support to have unity and camaraderie in the region," said Montagliani in speech after his election as top dog of the CONCACAF, that was led by a Committee since its interim President Alfredo Hawit was arrested in December in Switzerland on charges of corruption. In fact, two Presidents of CONCACAF have left office in a year, amid allegations. Jeffrey Webb, of the Cayman Islands, has found guilty of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, while the Honduran Hawit accepted that it colluded with other leaders for granting marketing rights to companies in Florida and Argentina in Exchange for bribes paid in bank accounts that he and his family controlled in Panama and Honduras. The predecessor of Webb, the Trinidad and Tobago Jack Warner, was charged in may, also as part of the corruption scandal that shook the FIFA.

"These events have sullied our sport and have undermined the public's confidence in the agencies that govern football," wrote Montagliani Monday, in an open letter that highlighted their attributes to lead the CONCACAF. "If football deserves the devotion of so much of the world's population, it needs to be governed in a manner subject to principles and professionalism, that above all, protect the integrity of this game."

Apart from plays on words, can Montagliani as insurance Executive experience be valuable to his new position? "I think that my unique, as a football player, Manager and Executive career has prepared me particularly well to lead the CONCACAF at this important time," it was considered in the letter. And in statements to the press before the Congress, Montagliani considered alien to the temptations of corruption. "I've had a real success as an entrepreneur, and I'm not here for the money, but because I love football", said.

After graduating in 1988 from political science and French at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, his hometown in Canada, Montagliani contemplated the possibility of studying law. But two years later he ran for a job at Guardian Insurance Co. He worked two years in the insurance company, before moving to Hogan and Cox, another company of the province of British Columbia where Montagliani took off professionally and where he was coach of the football team.

"I've been able to take advantage of those values that teaches the sport, knowing that the insulation does not help, but the collective work. I've been able to bring this to a corporate environment", he said. In 2005, he chaired the British Columbia Soccer Association. And four years ago he was elected at the head of the Canadian Association. Then, the breakdown in the dome of the CONCACAF opened the door to the office that was voted on Thursday. He is the first Canadian President in the history of CONCACAF and breaks with an uninterrupted streak of Caribbean leaders, which dated back to 1990. Its designation would instead approach the leadership of the Agency towards the dome of influence of the United States and Mexico, the members with more economic power in CONCACAF, which supported the candidacy of Montagliani.

"Today is the time for a person who can unify a Confederation because we have this culture of three regions: the Caribbean, Central America and the North." "I don't know if I am Canadian, or because I have a family tradition, but I think it is time to be together, as 41 Member countries", but said the leader, before the vote

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