Brazil’s Ex-Olympic Committee Boss Gets 30 Years Jail Term Over Rio 2016 Corruption

Former Rio 2016 and Brazilian Olympic Committee President Carlos Nuzman has been sentenced to 30 years and 11 months in jail for buying votes for the Brazilian city’s successful bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Nuzman was found guilty of corruption, criminal organisation, money laundering and tax evasion in a decision announced by judge Marcelo Bretas, head of the 7th Federal Criminal Court in Rio de Janeiro.

The 79-year-old, a former volleyball player who represented Brazil at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, will not be jailed until the appeals process has been completed.

Former Rio de Janeiro Governor Sérgio Cabral and Leonardo Gryner, the former director general of Rio 2016, were also sentenced to prison terms.

Cabral was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison, while Gryner received a term of 13 years and 10 months.

In a 57-page judgement, it was revealed that between July 2014 and September 2017, Nuzman had “hidden and concealed the origin and ownership of 16 kilos of gold, in the value of BRL1,495,437.63 (£202,000/$269,000/€239,000), arising from illegal activity, upon acquisition and maintenance not declared in a safe in Switzerland”.

In October 2017, Nuzman was arrested as part of an investigation called “Operation Unfair Play” on suspicion of organising a $2 million (£1.5 million/€1.8 million) bribe of members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The investigation had been launched after French newspaper Le Monde alleged members of the IOC had been bribed three days before the organisation’s Session in Copenhagen in October 2009, where Rio de Janeiro defeated rivals Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to become the first South American city to be awarded the Olympics.

Bretas claimed Nuzman, an IOC member between 2000 and 2012, was the architect of the scheme.

“The culpability is high, as Carlos Arthur Nuzman was the main creator of the illicit scheme examined in these records and thus acted taking advantage of the high position achieved over 22 years as President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, which is why his conduct must be valued more rigorously than that of any corrupt person,” Bretas said.

“The convict dedicated his public career to making Rio de Janeiro the host city for the Olympics, however, despite such social responsibility, he chose to act against morality and public property.”