Thursday, August 01, 2002
FBI investigated during Games
USOC, others now want deeper probe
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — In the middle of the figure skating uproar at the Salt Lake City Olympics, an FBI agent quietly sought out French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne to ask if she knew a Russian mobster who lived in the south of France.
The Russian's name was Alimzan Tokhtakhounov.
The agent said he was following a tip from an anonymous source in London that a deal had been reached between French skating federation president Didier Gailhaguet and Tokhtakhounov: If Gailhaguet fixed the pairs event, Tokhtakhounov would give $1 million to the French hockey team.
“It sounds like science fiction to me,” Le Gougne's attorney, Erik Christiansen, told the agent.
The deal was described differently, but just as fantastically, Wednesday when federal prosecutors said Tokhtakhounov had been arrested in Italy on U.S. charges he fixed the pairs figure skating and ice dancing events at Salt Lake City.
The suspect “arranged a classic quid pro quo: 'You'll line up support for the Russian pair, we'll line up support for the French pair and everybody will go away with the gold, and perhaps there'll be a little gold for me,”' U.S. Attorney James Comey said, referring to conversations heard through wiretaps in an investigation into the mob.
Prosecutors said that Tokhtakhounov hoped he would be rewarded with a visa to return to France, where he once lived.
After meeting with the FBI agent during the games, Christiansen spoke with Le Gougne about Tokhtakhounov.
“I confirmed with Ms. Le Gougne that she never heard of him, she'd never met with him, she'd never seen him, she'd never spoken with him,” Christiansen said Wednesday. “And I believe her. She doesn't know this guy from anything.”
The FBI never approached Le Gougne again, Christiansen said, and Tokhtakhounov's name didn't come up at the International Skating Union inquiry that resulted in Le Gougne's suspension.
“I sat through two days of hearings in Lausanne, Switzerland, and examined witness after witness, and there was not even a hint of any of this kind of stuff,” Christiansen said.
Le Gougne, at home in France, was not immediately available for comment. She contended after the pairs competition she had been pressured to vote for the Russians, Elena Berezhanaya and Anton Sikharulidze, as part of a vote-swapping scheme involving ice dancing, witnesses testified at a hearing during the games.
She later recanted, saying she voted her conscience.
The Russian pairs team was awarded the gold medal in a 5-4 vote, but after four days of controversy Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were given duplicate gold medals and Le Gougne was suspended.
Pairs referee Ron Pfenning and international judge Jon Jackson were two key witnesses against Le Gougne during the ISU investigation and at the hearing in Lausanne, where she and Gailhaguet were banned for three years, plus the 2006 Games. After Tokhtakhounov's arrest, Pfenning and Jackson's attorney, Benjamin Kaplan, said they, too, want to see a wider probe by the ISU into corruption in figure skating.
“I'm pleased because obviously there were a lot of suspicions that it wasn't the French alone, that the Russians were deeply involved, and this confirms it,” Kaplan said from his office in San Francisco.
“Just like men in power used to have ballerinas in Russia, now the thing is to have champion skaters or other champions in other sports. The Russian mafia is deep into sport.”
The U.S. Olympic Committee said it was “deeply concerned” with the announcement of Tokhtakhounov's arrest and said it was important to get at the truth.
Bob Steadward, manager of Sale and Pelletier, called the news “a shock to the skating world.”
A week after the pairs competition, the ice dancing team of Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat won France's first gold in figure skating since 1932. Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh of Russia took the silver.
Asked about the charges against Tokhtakhounov, Peizerat said: “I have never heard of this man.”
By winning the ice dancing competition by a 5-4 split of the judges, the Russian-born Anissina and Peizerat ended Russian domination of the event. Russians had won four straight and six of the previous seven Olympic ice dancing events.
Max Miller, an attorney who also represents Le Gougne, viewed Tokhtakhounov's arrest with as much skepticism as he viewed the ISU investigation.
“This makes the whole thing more fishy,” Miller said. “Were the other judges approached? What does the Russian mafia get out of it? It seems to raise more questions than it answers.”
Sports Stories
Dodgers 11, Reds 5
Reds Box, Runs
Rare Wagner card found - maybe
White activated; Reitsma sent down
Getting Kearns out is almost a no-no
Reds Notebook: Chen's confidence up
Beltre leads Dodgers out of homer slump
Marlins 8, Cardinals 5
Mariners 5, Tigers 2
Red Sox 2, Angels 1
Contenders tweak rosters at deadline
Arbitrator could OK contraction
Louisville 6, Indianapolis 3
Wilson steps up in sack race
Kitna refocuses in QB competition
Autographs, fireworks tonight
Bengals Notebook: Rookies adjust to camp
NFL Notebook: Dallas mum on Smith's future
Ex-UC star Blount becomes a Bull again
FBI investigated during Games 
