Police in Brazil have barred Ireland’s top six Olympic officials from leaving the country as they investigate the alleged illegal sale of tickets for Rio 2016.
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The two men, along with a third OCI official Dermot Henihan, had their passports seized on Sunday by police in an operation that also recovered 228 unused tickets from Ireland’s allocation for the games.
Police said they would recommend that the passports of Kevin Kilty and Stephen Martin be returned to them after they were interviewed at a police station in the north of Rio.
Police allege Hickey is implicated in a ticketing scam that involves Ireland’s official Games ticket reseller, Dublin-based PRO10 Sports Management, and an worldwide sports hospitality company, THG Sports.
“We want to know about his [Delaney’s] involvement in this case but he didn’t come to Brazil”, said investigator Aloysio Falcao following a police media conference. THG Sports was an authorised reseller for tickets at the London Olympics and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
We are here to fully co-operate.
Update 9.22am: Draft terms of reference for the State inquiry into the Rio Olympics ticket scandal suggest that it could probe ticketing arrangements for the 2012 Olympics as well as this year’s Games. There is a lot you could say about this particular case and the parallels it shares with other cases in the public eye but until the full investigation is finished it would perhaps be wise not to do so.
OCI pair John Delaney – also the FAI chief executive – and Willie O’Brien are wanted for questioning by Brazilian police.
According to a statement by the OCI, the police were met by three OCI personnel and, while no arrests were made, police took possession of their passports, mobile phones and laptops.
Earlier, IOC president Thomas Bach said that Hickey will appear before a Brazilian judge on Tuesday.
In the e-mails, they said, Mr Hickey and Mr Evans discussed tickets that are at the heart of the investigation into the alleged scheme, which police said the ring planned to sell at inflated prices and earn as much as 10 million reais (S$3.09 million) in profit.
They also arrested Irishman Kevin Mallon, a director of THG Sports, which specialises in corporate and sports hospitality and has been held since.
Currently, Hickey is waiting for his case to be assigned to a judge who will decide whether he is to be formally charged with facilitating ticket touting, establishing a cartel and illicit marketing. The pair are being held together in a Rio jail. On Wednesday, his lawyer Arthur Lavigne said his arrest had “no legal support”.
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At their press conference the Rio police provided printouts of some of the emails between Evans, the head of THG, an worldwide sports hospitality company.
