Posted on 08/03/2002 7:23:33 PM PDT by glock rocks
Skating results may be tossed
Rogge says no sanction will be ruled out in scandal
By Andrew Dampf
Associated Press writer
VENICE, Italy — There could be even more changes in figure skating results from the Salt Lake City Olympics. They might even be thrown out.
Two top IOC officials on Friday left open the possibility of changing final scores in pairs and ice dancing from the Games, depending on the investigation into an alleged vote-swapping deal orchestrated by a reputed Russian mobster.
The biggest judging scandal in Olympic history already has resulted in duplicate gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team.
"I am not ruling out anything, not even the annulment of the Olympic results," said Thomas Bach, vice president of the International Olympic Committee.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said he didn't want to punish athletes because of the "wrongdoing of some judges" but that no "action or sanction" would be ruled out.
"The information that we have received is too much to be ignored," Rogge said in Manchester, England, at the Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, the man accused of scheming to fix the results of the two events contended he doesn't even follow the sport and said the charges against him are a "farce." Elsewhere, outraged figure skaters threatened to sue over media coverage of the investigation.
It all made for another hectic day in the scandal-marred world of figure skating, facing its biggest brouhaha since the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan affair before the 1994 Winter Games.
Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was arrested Wednesday in Italy on U.S. charges he helped put together a vote-swapping deal to fix the results of the pairs and ice dancing competitions. Much of the case is based on phone conversations recorded during an investigation into the mob, and Italian police say that Tokhtakhounov indicated that six judges could be involved.
U.S. prosecutors say a "co-conspirator" connected with the Russian Skating Federation did the legwork after being contacted by Tokhtakhounov. The co-conspirator was not named in the complaint filed in New York, nor were any of the judges or other people who might have been involved in the scheme.
After meeting Tokhtakhounov in a Venice jail, lawyer Luca Saldarelli said his client told him he worked "as an intermediary in international affairs" and was innocent.
"He's absolutely surprised. He doesn't know anything about the Salt Lake City Olympic Games," said Saldarelli, who indicated earlier his client would fight extradition. "He's not even a fan of figure skating."
Saldarelli said his client was a "friend of some great Russian athletes, but not Olympians."
In France, Didier Gailhaguet, the suspended head of the French skating federation, denied having any contact with Tokhtakhounov "before, during or after" the Olympics.
But he said the federation met with him in the spring of 2000, at Tokhtakhounov's request, about a possible partnership "for the benefit of a Paris ice hockey club." Gailhaguet didn't elaborate, saying only that there was no follow-up to the exchange "and no contacts kept up."
Italian police said they had been looking into the Russian for his alleged involvement with a Moscow-based crime group called the Sun Brigade.
Tokhtakhounov is accused of scheming to get a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team, and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team. Both teams won.
French skating judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the day after the pairs competition that she had been pressured to vote for the Russians. She later recanted but still was suspended, as was Gailhaguet. Le Gougne has said she doesn't know Tokhtakhounov.
The judging scandal resulted in duplicate gold medals being awarded to Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the Canadian pairs team that finished second to Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.
Sikharulidze and Berezhnaya said they planned to sue U.S. television networks for using pictures of them in connection with coverage of the reputed mobster, and the Russian Olympic Committee said it would meet with lawyers.
"These events resemble the theater of the absurd," committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It's clearly a dirty and foolish insinuation that undermines respect for Russian sportsmen."
A week after the pairs competition, France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won gold in ice dancing. Investigators say the winning female ice dancer - presumably Anissina, although she is not named in court papers - spoke to Tokhtakhounov on the phone after the event.
Anissina, a native Russian who skated for France, also said she would consider taking legal action to stop the "defamation" against her.
"Gwendal and myself never needed anybody to help us win our gold medal in Salt Lake City," Anissina said in a statement issued by the French Skating Federation.
"I categorically denounce all the slanderous, unjust and disgraceful allegations that were made against me after the arrest of Mr. Tokhtakhounov."
(There, I promise not praise anything else French for the rest of the month.)
perhaps the perception of impropriety could take the illusion of power away from the real string pullers.
pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
ITAR-TASS reported on 2 August that the Italian police had been tracking Tokhtakhunov for allegedly transferring $50 million from the Bank of New York to offshore accounts from 1996-2001.
www.rferl.org
ISKANDER MAHMUDOVThe head of the Urals Mining Metallurgical Company (UMMC), Iskander Mahmudov, has been described as the second-most-frightening and -influential man in Russia after Boris Berezovskii. He gives no interviews, rarely shows up at social events, and is considered by some to be the most "secretive" of Russian businessmen. Mahmudov controls over 40 percent of Russian copper production and appears to be involved in every major scandal in the copper industry. With business partner Oleg Deripaska, Mahmudov performs the role of a sword of retribution, showing no mercy for competitors. Without any other information available, the media has tended to "demonize" Mahmudov, calling him an evil genius of the newest Russian economy. On 10 September, Russian magazine "Profil" published its opinion of Mahmudov in an attempt to provide an objective picture of this businessman.
Some reports have linked Mahmudov with infamous criminals such as Nordex President Grigory Luchansky and Almazhan Tokhtakhunov. Both men have been described as criminal intermediaries. Mahmudov's links to the Kremlin are also significant. One document indicates his relations with Kremlin adviser Valentin Yumashev and Nazir Khapsirokov, an aide to Alexander Voloshin, head of the Presidential Administration. Banker Alexander Mamut, chairman of MDM Bank, has also been added to this most-interesting mix of associates. It is no wonder that Mahmudov has been referred to as the second-most-influential businessman in Russia.
www.rferl.org
Three months passed after Levayev met with Putin and happy news came from Angola: the government of that country suddenly gave Lev Levayev exclusive rights to sell diamonds extracted in Angola. That was a scandal, since the Angola government had annulled all previous agreements, including with the Russian company Alrosa. Actually not including, but first of all. We know that Alrosa invested a lot of effort, time, and money in the Katoka mine, and so it was counting on selling 90 percent of the diamonds extracted, which was envisioned by an agreement with the Angolans. But later, as all sources, including ones close to Alrosa, claim, the company began to have financial difficulties. That was in fact when Levayev appeared with his investments and acquired 18 percent of the stock in the joint venture. And in the spring of this year came that very sensational news from Angola.The Angolans never did explain the real reasons for what happened, but judging from the anonymous assertions of their officials in the press, pressure from Moscow was extreme and Angola's government had to yield. Who specifically was applying pressure from Moscow remained a secret. We can only conjecture that a very interesting person by the name of Arkadiy Gaydamak was behind this "pressure."
In interviews recently this gentleman has been fond of calling himself an "official of the Angolan government." Six years have passed since Gaydamak opened accounts in the Paris branch of Barclay's Bank for Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov, also known as Tayvanchik [the Taiwanese], and at his own expense remodeled Tokhtakhunov's luxurious apartment in the most bourgeois section of Paris.
Gaydamak managed to turn from a "representative of Russian organized crime in France" (to quote documents of the French special services handed over to the senate in 1994, which from there appeared in open print) into an influential figure from the circle of the former minister of internal affairs Charles Pasquoi, a great friend of President Chirac, and to set up relations with Russia's tax inspection office which at the request of the French authorities were trying to audit his Russian income. Later he tried to "resolve" the problem of the Angolan debts to the Soviet Union and sold weapons to Angola itself and became an "official of that country." In one of his recent interviews, Gaydamak called the accusation against him of selling Russian weapons in Africa's "hot spots" a fabrication.
But there is a mention of Gaydamak in the official report of the British social organization Global Witness [in both Russian and English] that provides a very clear idea of the corruption and role of international corporations in Angola. Together with a Brazilian by the name of Pierre Falcon, who runs his business from Paris, Gaydamak was selling weapons to Angola.
According to the report, Gaydamak and Falcon's weapons business is closely tied with that country's army elite. Several years ago, the two of them had serious problems with the French authorities because of deliveries of combat vehicles and firearms from Czechia to Angola through France. When the report had already been published, one of its compilers called me from London to ask how dangerous Gaydamak might be. The problem was that Gaydamak had called the compilers of the report and very clearly threatened them. As soon as Gaydamak had problems with the French police, he miraculously rescued the French pilots shot down over Bosnia from captivity and even received a French order for it. After that the fiercest representatives of the Russian mafia vied with one another to rush to offer their services in rescuing French hostages in Chechnya.
Perhaps only Len Macintosh managed to copy his friend's success. Ultimately our "Angolan official" became Levayev's partner in the large Israeli company Africa-Israel. And in the spring of this year, as we already know, Levayev received the exclusive (we can talk that way now) right to sell Angolan diamonds. If we take into account that Gaydamak took charge of the bank Rossiyskiy Kredit together with Lifshits, it is almost understandable who was "pressuring" the Angolan government from Moscow. But all this is still only guesses and mystery. And a distinct, entertaining story.
But then it is perfectly clear where Levayev will sell the uncut Angolan diamonds. He personally has already in fact claimed publicly that the diamonds will be sent directly to Israel for cutting. So that is how the Russian state company Alrosa was very easily removed from a very major source of income. Companies are willing to pay gigantic "royalties" to corrupt officials just for assisting in such operations. Perhaps Levayev is not one of those officials...
One version has it that Leviev was helped by his friend and eventual partner in Africa Israel, Arcadi Gaydamak, who opened doors for him in Angola.Gaydamak, with his French partner Pierre Falcone, sold millions of dollars worth of eastern European arms to Angola and became cronies of President Eduardo dos Santos. Arcady Gaydamak purchased 15% of Africa-Israel in January 2000, a deal that was explained by a company spokesman on the following terms: "Levayev believes that the company can reach international achievements in energy, real estate, and investment assets following the partnership with Gaydamak."
Gaydamak, a businessman with Russian and Israeli citizenship, worked as an economic advisor to Angolan President dos Santos and was reportedly involved with Pierre Falcone in the renegotiation of Angola's debt to Russia in 1996 through the French bank Paribas and the Russian bank Menatap.
The Yediot Aharonot quotes Gaydamak as saying that he "initiated a deal in which Angola would sell oil drilling franchises and, with the money earned, buy weapons from the Russian Defense Ministry."
Some alleged arms deals, however, were scrutinised by French authorities and an international arrest warrant was reportedly issued for Gaydamak in 2000 and he is wanted for questioning by Paris magistrates about a £450m allegedly illegal arms deal with Angola in he early 1990 The French newspaper, le Parisien reported that the French intelligence service DGSE had been observing Falcone and Gaydamak for possible money laundering through petrol and arms sales, as well as for Gaydamak's possible association with Russian organised crime.
Gaydamak also reportedly has close ties to Danny Yatom, a former head of Mossad and security advisor to Ehud Barak. According to the Yediot Aharonot it was actually Yatom who introduced Gaydamak to Leviev around the beginning of 1999. Yatom had previously established a security firm named Strategic Consulting Group (SCG) in July 1998 along with Avi Dagan, the former head of Mossad's collection department and the company sought contracts in Kazakhstan and Algeria .
Yatom and Dagan also visited Angola in 1999 with Arcady Gaydamak, according to the Yediot Aharonot ;"to examine an option in engaging in a large security project" and after Gaydamak introduced the two men to a senior "Angolan government minister" the terms of the deal were agreed upon.
Yatom reportedly left SCG when Barak's government took office in July 1999 and the status of this Angolan project is unknown. Israeli General (retired) Ze'ev Zahrine was also reported to have been part of the Ascorp establishment until late 2000. It is not clear exactly why he departed from Angola; a turfwar between Israeli, Belgian, British and South African Ascorp members is alleged to have occurred, with Israeli security interests diminished. Zahrine was the manager of Levdan, an Israeli military service provider that was reported to have had a contract for presidential security in Angola.
http://www.diamondstudies.com/docs/camarb2.pdf
French deny mafia linksPARIS: Didier Gailhaguet, head of the French skating federation, has denied links with an alleged mobster arrested in Italy on charges of fixing results during the Winter Olympic in Salt Lake City . . .
Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov was arrested after Italian police raided a Tuscan villa as part of a combined operation between the FBI, Interpol and Europol and now faces extradition to the United States . . .
But FFSG president Gailhaguet has denied any contact with Tokhtakhunov, although he admitted that the alleged mafia man had visited their headquarters in Paris two years ago . . .
But Gailhaguet admitted that "during the spring of 2000, and at his request, Mr Tokhtakhunov came to the FFSG headquarters regarding a partnership proposal benefiting a Parisian ice hockey club . . .
Police sources said anti-mafia prosecutor Francesco Sacerio Pavone "has a 700-page dossier" on Tokhtakhunov," who, they said, has links to politicians and owns luxury homes in several Italian cities . . .
Tokhtakhunov, who was detained on an American arrest warrant, could be extradited to the United States in the autumn, police said . . .
The Russian Olympic Committee tried to distance themselves from Tokhtakhunov . . .
ROC president Leonid Tyagachev claimed he had never met Tokhtakhunov, who has dual Russian-Israeli citizenship . . .
Wednesday's swoop on the villa near the Tuscan town of Forte dei Marmi came after a crackdown into an organised crime syndicate from Russia going by the name of "The Sun Brigade".
Tokhtakhunov, who has spent some time in Paris in an appartment in the chic 16th arrondisement of the city, is linked to fraud cases in Germany, bribery, and trafficking in drugs, arms and works of art, Interpol claimed.
He is also suspected of being behind gambling scams.
According to sources in a taped telephone conversation before the Olympics he is heard to say that "we have four of the six judges in our pocket.
Lev is the biggest diamond dealer in Israel, owns shopping malls, hotel chains and over 1,000 gas stations in the USA. The Mossad chief under Barak introduced Gaydamak and Leview to each other.
Then Gaydamak set up Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (the Olympic fixer) with bank accounts in Paris. Even furnished his apartment.
There is an arrest warrent out for Gaydamak. He illegally sold over $500 million worth of Russian weapons to Angola and other countries in Africa.
After Gaydamak and Leviev became partners, Leviev, to the surprise of everyone in the business, was awarded a monopoly on Angolan diamonds.
www.rferl.org
14 September 2001, Volume 1, Number 10:
Some reports have linked Mahmudov with infamous criminals such as Nordex President Grigory Luchansky and Almazhan Tokhtakhunov . . .Every scandal over a major aluminum or copper company has seemingly involved Mahmudov and Deripaska. The accusations against Mahmudov are the same -- he acts arbitrarily, using militia and secret service to take control of companies. But Mahmudov says that people should not fear him. Rather, they should beware because he and Deripaska "do not forget insults." Mahmudov warned: "Even if you cannot repay it immediately, you should keep this insult in your memory, and the time to repay it will eventually come."
(Marc) Rich linked to money launderingYaya and Phillip...the hunch you both had that Marc Rich is involved may be correct.
Washington Times ^
| 6/21/02 | P.K. Semler
Posted on 06/21/2002
2:51 AM Eastern by kattracksMILAN, Italy — European prosecutors say that documents identifying Marc Rich — the American fugitive who won an 11th-hour pardon from President Clinton — have turned up during a crackdown on money laundering and the Russian mafia. . .
Bologna's chief investigating magistrate, Paolo Giovagnoli, said in an interview that his office does not exclude either issuing a subpoena for Mr. Rich . . .
"Right now, we have 150 people under investigation and 50 people under arrest and would like to question these people first before naming other people as suspects. Currently, Marc Rich is not on the list of those under investigation, but his name has appeared in relationship with those who are," Mr. Giovagnoli said.
Mr. Giovagnoli said he first wants to question Grigori Loutchansky, whose Nordex company has been linked with Mr. Rich. Mr. Loutchansky, who has Israeli citizenship, is considered by law-enforcement authorities to be a major figure in the Russian organized-crime network, Mr. Giovagnoli said.
"I have an Interpol report that states that Marc Rich was one of the founding partners of Nordex," he said. According to prosecutors, Nordex, a company based in Vienna, Austria, with offices in Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Russia, Switzerland and Ukraine, is accused of having had a central role in the money-laundering operation uncovered by the "Spiderweb" operation.
Do you know if he's still in Switzerland?
Angolagate has also spreads its tentacles across the Atlantic. In a report titled Crude Awakening, the British NGO Global Witness had asserted that ìthe financing of a $50m contract for the supply of East European weapons from the Czech Osos Praha Company and the Slovak joint stock company ZTS was arranged in 1993 by the Russian-Israeli businessman Arkadi Gaydamak and by his French-Brazilian partner Pierre Falcone, run through the Swiss oil-trading company Glencore founded by Marc Richî. That was a year before Rich sold his shares in Glencore. At the time, neither Glencore nor Marc Rich denied the Global Witness report.Gaydamak is currently on the run - the French having issued an international arrest warrant for him.
So far, neither Glencore or Marc Rich have been accused of violating Swiss or French laws, but the conclusion one may draw from the Global Witness report is that Marc Rich might have contributed to the Angolan government’s war effort. Should the US Justice Department find a connection between his ex-wife, singer Denise Rich, and her donation to Hillary Clinton’s New York senate campaign being linked to Bill Clinton’s decision to pardon Marc Rich over a purported $48m tax fraud, that would be more than embarrassing for the former First Lady.
The question is whether or not the former US President, who justified his decision to pardon Rich for his ëpositive role’ in the Middle East peace process, can seriously ignore Marc Rich’s role in Angolagate. After all, Bill Clinton, if he wanted to, could have easily accessed all intelligence reports about such an important and controversial player on the world’s oil scene.
Even assuming that Clinton did not know, it will be even harder to convince those black voters who supported Mrs Clinton in New York that she and her husband were ignorant of Marc Rich’s role as a top sanctions busters during the South Africa apartheid era. According to a book, Apartheid’s Oil Secrets Revealed, from the Dutch-based anti-apartheid group Shipping Research Bureau, which monitored violations of the 1979 UN oil embargo, the Swiss-based trader chartered 149 out of the total 865 tankers spotted by the SRB calling at South African ports between 1979 and1993.
Since oil was at the time the only strategic product which South Africa lacked, Rich can be considered as having been instrumental in supporting the apartheid state’s war machine - unleashed against those who opposed this system both inside the country and in the frontline states. The SRB book provides evidence that Rich, who is Jewish and holds an Israeli passport, managed to sell crude from the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Brunei to South Africa, which had developed close military cooperation with Israel.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/icpubs/ab/may01/cover1.htm
My ears perked up when the media said the magic words "Russian Mafia" in connection with the Olympic fixer.
That is their code name for Marc Rich,Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich, Lenoid Minin, Luchansky, Gaydamak, and others who operate on Israeli passports. Our media rarely mentions Israel.
In the mainstream American media, I have not seen one connection between the Olympic fixer and any of these people.
The American press wants this to be a sports story which has one colorful Russian mobster involved in it.
Starting to believe that when freepers were looking at China, we only were seeing a small part of the corruption. Africa, Israel and Russia seem to be the center of it. Always wondered what Ron Brown was doing in Africa in 1993.
LOL!
looks like he was keeping busy.
Very easy to explain.
The Russian mobster who tried to fix the skating is not Jewish. This bothers some people who like to make EVERYTHING the fault of the Jews.
Ergo the attempt at some connect-the-dots craziness to create Jewish connection. Pretty bizarre. LOL!
Obsessed people with an agenda will always find a way to cloud the issue.
The real scandal here is that a Russian mobster apparently bribed the French judges and may the French government. Not a big surprise, that.
Tokhtakhunov is the Olympic fixer. He has a Russian and Israeli passport.
Arkadi Gaydamak opened bank accounts for Tokhtakhunov in Paris and lavishly furnished Tokhtakhunov's apartement in Paris.
Gaydamak is wanted by France for illegally selling $500 million in Russian arms to Angola and other African countries.
Mossad chief Danny Yatom introduced Gaydamak to Lev Leviev, a Russian Israeli who is one of the wealthiest businessmen in Israel. After the meeting, Leviev, to the surprise of everyone, was granted a monpoly on Angolan diamonds.
The arms Gaydamak sold to Angola were run through "Glencore", a company owned by Marc Rich.
Marc Rich is one of the original founders of "Nordex" a company run by Israeli citizen Grigori Loutchansky.
According to law-enforcement authorities , Loutchansky is a major figure in Russian organized-crime.
LOL!!
How are you so sure he doesn't?
ROC president Leonid Tyagachev claimed he had never met Tokhtakhunov, who has dual Russian-Israeli citizenship . . .
DST (France's Secret Service) first became interested in Takhtakhunov's personality in 1996 when it was noticed that a Soviet citizen was living in France with an Israeli passport. Pravada
By the way:
Kevin Bacon may have gone to Israel. He probably has eaten Russian food. His wife wears a diamond ring. He once passed Jackie Kennedy on a NY street. He knows some Jews.
I smell a rat. Forget the Olympic skating.
Look who else may be involved...
Probably Marc Rich....
It's all too Democrat-style smear tactic for me. What they tried to do to Bush, and still are trying to do to him in fact. We should not stoop to their level.
I said I thought Marc Rich was involved in one of my first replies. I didn't know.
Scroll down a little and you will find that Rich is involved. Please read the entire thread before making allegations. This is confusing enough as it is for those who have not followed this story.
Why don't you provide some links which debunk the sources I have cited? So far all we have is your opinion on what occurred. No facts.
Give her a little time, LarryLied. It's a confusing story.
At least it appears she's starting to read a little bit of it, rather than just jumping on the thread to call names.
NTV ON TARPISHCHEV. NTV's "Itogi" showed the second installment of its expose on the aluminum industry on 5 January. The first program argued that Oleg Soskovets was the patron of a clique of aluminum industrialists (see OMRI Daily Digest 2 January 1997). The second tried to tie these individuals to Shamil Tarpishchev, former Sports Minister and Yeltsin tennis trainer, and to other figures allegedly linked to Moscow crime groups, such as Oleg "Taiwanchik" Takhtakhunov and Anton Malevskii.So now we have proof Oleg "Taiwanchik" Takhtakhunov, the Olympic fixer, was in Israel and was in the company of those involved in Marc Rich's line of business.The evidence cited was less than conclusive. It consisted of photos of these men meeting at tennis tournaments in Sochi and the Kremlin, and a photo from the magazine Tennis plyus of 2 December showing them meeting the aluminum industrialist Mikhail Cherny in Israel.
The program also quoted the Kremlin visitor list for Tarpishev from June 1995, which showed that he met with Oleg Kantor, the head of Yugorskii bank, one month before the latter was assassinated. The program is presumably part of an effort to discredit Tarpishev associate Aleksandr Korzhakov. -- Peter Rutland
Cached at google:1996 Open Media Research Institute, Inc.
LarryLied's twisted tales are always confusing. Disinformation always is. That's the purpose.
The real story is very easy to follow.
A Russian mobster tried to fix the skating results at the Olympics. The French judges may be culpable as well.
The only true thing Mr. Lied has said is that in the real world, his loony "connections" are in no way reported by the US media. I suppose if the Spotlight was still in business, they would. :)
Mr. Lied I am on to you. Don't even bother trying your smarmy tactics on me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.