Police have said the story was a lie, and that Bentz, Conger and two other US swimmers, including Ryan Lochte, vandalized a gas station.
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Rio de Janeiro’s chief of civil police said during an afternoon news conference that the investigation is not done, but the swimmers could theoretically be charged for false communication of a crime and for damaging private assets.
Lochte has returned to the USA, but the three other swimmers remain in Brazil.
USOC spokesperson Patrick Sandusky said Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were released by local authorities after being pulled from a flight at the Rio de Janeiro airport, with the understanding that discussions would continue amid uncertainty over what truly took place during a late outing the night Olympic swimming wrapped up at the Rio Games.
The Brazil police on Thursday contradicted Lochte’s account that he was robbed at gun point last weekend.
Ryan Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medallist, claimed he and team-mates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen were stopped by armed robbers posing as police in their taxi back to the athletes’ village following a party.
Bentz and Conger were questioned by police on Wednesday after they were stopped trying to fly out of Brazil, and allegedly confessed that Lochte fabricated the story.
Brazilian authorities now say that they have video proof that the athletes were vandals, not robbery victims, and concocted the story to cover up how they paid off petrol station attendants after one of the swimmers kicked down a door.
Lochte and Feigen were among a group of four USA swimmers which originally reported that they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning by individuals posing as police. Conger, Bentz and Feigen are expected to provide additional testimony to Brazilian officials in the coming days.
The swimmers said they departed France House at about 4 a.m., while a surveillance video showed they checked back in to the athletes village at 6:56 a.m., the judge wrote.
Bentz and Conger were questioned by authorities after being pulled off their plane, bound for the United States, Wednesday night.
Originally Lochte and the three other swimmers did not report what had happened to the US Olympic Committee or Brazilian police.
Veloso added that a taxi driver picked up two women from the same party and that the women said they were “dating” or had relations with the swimmers.
“As part of our standard security protocol, we do not make athlete travel plans public and therefore can not confirm the athletes’ current location”, Sandusky said.
US officials said late Thursday that the behavior of the four is “not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA”.
According to CNBC Now, Rio police have formally accused Lochte and three of his Olympic swim teammates of falsely reporting a crime.
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Its advise Lochte’s mama should also give him – say sorry to the people of Rio. “They made a mistake – it is part of life”.
