The independent panel, commissioned by the Japanese Olympic Committee, admitted they were unable to interview Tan or either of the Diack family, and noted that the payments, which were made in two instalments, were twice the average of what the Tokyo bid team paid to other consultants.
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A report by the panel released Thursday said a payment of 2.8 million Singapore dollars ($2 million) to the Singaporean consultancy Black Tidings was legitimate.
Papa Massata Diack, who served as an IAAF adviser, is sought by Interpol in connection with a French corruption investigation targeting the Diacks around the covering up of positive doping cases.
The JOC also said the payment did not break French laws or violate any International Olympic Committee ethical guidelines.
Shortly after, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) set up an investigative panel of three lawyers to look into the payment, which has been linked to a son of disgraced ex-world athletics chief Lamine Diack.
The investigation panel does not know exactly how Tan spent the money or whether he transferred it to Diack or his son, Hayakawa added.
Japanese officials have consistently denied wrongdoing and have said that the payment was for consulting services related to the bid.
The payment from bid executives was made to Black Tidings, a company led by an associate of Papa Massata Diack. “Any violation of the International Olympic Committee code of ethics also could not be found”.
Hayakawa, a second lawyer and an accountant had to rely mainly on documents that had been kept by former bid committee members and testimony during more than 30 hearings held between June and late August.
“We think the investigation cleared the group of any suspicion in this regard”.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic games emblem is displayed at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Tokyo, Japan, June 15, 2016.
The widening of the French probe to the 2020 Olympic bidding process has put heavy pressure on Tokyo organizers and the IOC, which has sought to distance itself from the Federation Internationale de Football Association and IAAF corruption scandals and insisted that it had cleaned up since a bid scandal over the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
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Lamine Diack was arrested in 2015 on corruption and money laundering charges. He lives in Senegal. Find us on Facebook too!
