An alleged Russian mobster, arrested near Venice on suspicion of rigging the results of last February's Olympic figure skating competitions, may have corrupted as many as five of the Salt Lake City judges, Italian investigators said yesterday. "We have recorded a conversation in which the suspect indicates that he has influence over five of the nine judges," Col Giovanni Mainolfi of the finance police said. "We believe that corresponds to the four votes of the eastern bloc plus one vote from the French,"
Mr Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (53), an alleged boss of a Moscow crime organisation, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of conspiring to fix the outcomes of the ice dancing and pairs figure skating competitions at the 2002 Olympics. Investigators say Mr Tokhtakhounov organised a conspiracy whereby Russian judges supported the French ice-dancing team in return for French votes for the Russians. US authorities have said they will seek his extradition to New York, where he faces up to 10 years in prison and $500,000 in fines on wire fraud charges and conspiracy to commit bribery.
"So what happens is that the French can win with those five votes," Mr Tokhtakhounov allegedly told an accomplice in one of the intercepted phone conversations. In another, he allegedly told a nervous associate: "Don't worry, I can't be intercepted." The alleged beneficiary of Mr Tokhtakhounov's interference was the French ice dancer Marina Anissina, who was born in Russia, and her partner, Gwendal Peizerat.
A spokesman for the Russian Olympic Committee yesterday dismissed the allegations as an "entertaining fantasy." Mr Gennady Shvets said the allegations might be acceptable in the plot of a Hollywood film but were not to be taken seriously in reality. Controversy over the judging overshadowed the winter Olympics and two Canadian pairs figure skaters, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, were belatedly awarded extra gold medals following a public outcry.
Col Mainolfi said investigators believed the alleged Russian crime boss, known as "Taiwanchik" (the little Taiwanese) in criminal circles because of his Uzbek origins, expected help with a French visa application in return for his intervention in favour of the French skaters.
They also suspect he benefited financially because of his control of casinos in Russia.
Mr Tokhtakhounov's phone was under surveillance by the Venice finance police because of his suspected involvement in money laundering. The owner of luxury homes in Milan, Rome and the exclusive Tuscan beach resort of Forte dei Marmi, he is believed to have used companies in the Venice area to launder money from the former Soviet Union.
Mr Tokhtakhounov enjoyed high-level contacts in the world of sport, Col Mainolfi said. He was driving a Mercedes lent him by the Ukrainian tennis player Andrei Medvedev when he was arrested, the colonel added.