In Atlanta’s case, there is so far no evidence of the outright bribery that came to light in the Salt Lake City scandal. The memos that emerged last week “were private comments that people made early in the game,” said Charles Battle, executive vice president of the Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee. “I don’t know that we acted on this information.” But Atlanta business leaders were playing hardball in their $7.8 million campaign to host the Summer Games, and they seem to have mounted an aggressive effort to gather intelligence on the foibles and vulnerabilities of the 92 IOC delegates who would vote on Atlanta’s bid. The committee’s most sensitive files were recently turned over to Congress and now are part of an investigation into the Olympic selection process. Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, who chairs the House subcommittee that is investigating the Atlanta bid process, said the secret files contain “quite a bit of damaging and troubling evidence” that suggests “a pattern of buying votes” by the Atlanta organizers.
According to an IOC official, at the time Atlanta was bidding for the Games the rules on lobbying were in a state of flux. Gifts to IOC members were supposed to be limited to $200 in value, and expense-paid trips by IOC members to bidding cities were supposed to last no more than five days. But the rules were often stretched; an IOC official suggested the aggressive lobbying culture fostered by Atlanta may have emboldened some IOC delegates to solicit favors from subsequent bidders. IOC spokes-man Franklin Servan-Schreiber insists “the IOC has learned its lesson and is reforming.”
In a June report to Congress, the Atlanta committee said it was “not aware” of any “shopping sprees” for IOC members. But the committee files are replete with bills and vouchers for shopping expeditions and other perks provided to IOC members. One memo by Billy Payne, president of the Atlanta Olympic Committee, candidly discussed the possibility of staging a shopping spree for Maria Teresa Samaranch, the wife of IOC Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch. The shopping expedition never took place, according to an IOC spokesman, but the Atlantans apparently did provide what Servan-Schreiber called a “fashion show” instead. A Finnish delegate, Pirjo Haggman, apparently was treated to more than $800 worth of merchandise by her Atlanta hosts. Haggman, who resigned from the IOC in the wake of the Salt Lake City scandal, could not be reached for comment on the Atlanta report.
Russia’s delegate to the IOC, Vitaly Smirnov, was also a big winner when Atlanta passed out the perks. According to congressional investigators, Smirnov got about $8,500 worth of travel and favors from the local committee. The list included a knife, a pair of hunting boots, a CD player and some Ray Charles CDs, a pair of slippers, a statue, a purse, one or more Cabbage Patch dolls and a $406 stay at Sea Island Plantation, the luxury resort off the Georgia coast. It also included a 10-week English-language course at Georgia Tech for Smirnov’s son, Andrew, who then got a job and an apartment in Atlanta. The Atlanta files include a notation that Smirnov planned to reimburse the local committee for the cost of the apartment and his son’s English training at Georgia Tech, but no indication whether he actually did so. Smirnov, who is chairman of the Russian sports federation, was one of nine IOC members who received “serious warnings” earlier this year for their parts in the Salt Lake City scandal. He could not be reached for comment on the Atlanta charges.
Other IOC members were treated to trips to Disney World, Sea Island Plantation and golf outings at Augusta National, the storied course where the Masters Tournament is played. A bank executive who arranged one such outing billed the Atlanta organizing committee for $4,970; another golf expedition cost the committee $2,139. “The IOC never requested any of these treatments–it was pushed upon them,” Servan-Schreiber told NEWSWEEK. “What happened in Atlanta was a systematic approach to each member in a lobbying way.”
One particularly questionable bit of business involved Charles Battle and an IOC delegate from Jamaica named Tony Bridge. According to a handwritten memo by Battle, Bridge wanted to send $15,500 to a company in south Florida but complained that he had difficulty transferring cash “in a timely fashion.” At that time–early 1990–Battle and another Atlantan were visiting Jamaica to seek Bridge’s support, and in return for his advice on lobbying the IOC, they agreed to take the cash with them when they flew back to the United States. They split the cash into two batches, $8,000 and $7,500, for the flight home and later sent the money to the Florida firm.
The transaction may have violated both Jamaican and U.S. laws. As Bridge acknowledged in an interview with NEWSWEEK, the Jamaican government at that time “frowned on” sending that much cash out of the country. On the U.S. side, the transfer potentially flouted a Customs regulation requiring travelers to file a declaration if they enter or leave the country with $10,000 or more in cash. The law, intended to deter money laundering, specifically prohibits travelers from splitting a sum into lesser bundles to avoid the reporting requirement. Bridge, who distributes many magazines, including NEWSWEEK, in Jamaica, said he did not know about the U.S. law at the time, and Battle, who is a lawyer, said he was unaware of the law as well. “I wasn’t doing it to evade anything,” Battle said. “I still maintain we’ve not done anything wrong.” But he conceded that “maybe we facilitated something that shouldn’t have been facilitated.”
Other members of the Atlanta organizing committee–including its president, Billy Payne–refrained from commenting last week while their lawyers prepare a second report to Congress. The first, filed in June, said corrupt practices had “not tainted” Atlanta’s lobbying effort, an assertion that has now been broadly undermined by disclosure of the secret memos, vouchers and reports. “Our goal is to clarify all the issues that need clarification and to thoroughly answer the [House] committee’s questions,” said Lee Echols, a spokesman for the Atlanta Olympic Committee. Congressional sources said public hearings are possible, depending on the Atlantans’ new response. But even if those hearings are called off, the IOC, still reeling from the first scandal, now must try to contain another.
Foibles and Vulnerabilities
To secure the Games, Atlanta business leaders tried to win over the 92-member International Olympic Committee–in part by anticipating every need and desire.
