"The IOC Ethics Commission, whose head was recently chosen by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, threatens to add another complex file to the pile of available work," writes Jan Boucher in the newspaper Le Monde. The publication reveals "the existence of a troubled financial connection between the Ukrainian Sergei Bubka, the former world record holder in pole vaulting, a member of the IOC executive committee and the vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and a person who was at the center of a scandal in the IAAF during the Olympic award process games of 2016 to the Brazilian Rio ".
According to the documents with which the newspaper was able to read, "Sergei Bubka transferred 45 thousand. New Mills Investments Ltd - a dummy offshore company registered in Nevis, a small tax haven in the Antilles. The beneficiary of New Mills Investments was none other than Valentin Balakhnichev, former president of the All-Russian Athletic Federation and former treasurer of the IAAF. Suspected of concealing doping cases in his country and extorting from athletes, Balakhnichev was suspended for life by the IAAF in January 2016 - this decision was confirmed by the Sports Arbitration Court on August 21, "reads the article.
"On the eve of the transfer of Bubka to an account owned by Valentin Balakhnichev, New Mills Investment transferred a similar amount - 45,033 thousand. dollars - Pamodzi Sports, the company of Pope Massa Diaka, the son of the former president of IAAF Lamin Diaka, - continues the author. - In the name of Pope Massa Diaka, an international arrest warrant was issued. It is central to two judicial investigations initiated by the French national financial prosecutor's office on suspicion of corruption in the leadership of the IAAF and violations in the awarding of the 2016 Summer Olympics Rio de Janeiro and 2020 - Tokyo ".
Sergei Bubka's lawyer, Louis Sharalambu, told the newspaper that "[his] client has no financial relationship with Diak".
Why was the former six-time pole vault champion transferred this amount to the former Russian leader? "As far as I remember, we intended to organize the event in Moscow and in many other cities around the world in the framework of its Pole Vault Stars - a series of competitions that would end in Donetsk," he tried to justify this fact in a conversation with Balakhnichev. This version was confirmed by the lawyer of the former pole vaulter: "It was about the consulting services that Balakhnichev provided to expand the scope of the Pole Vault Stars - track and field tournament that Bubka organized in Ukraine until 2014".
However, many specialists in this field, who were interviewed by the newspaper, answered that they had never heard of the expansion project for the pole vault competitions organized by Bubka.
"The date of these exchanges of money in the conditions of the greatest non-transparency is significant: June 17-18, 2009 IOC members gathered in the Swiss Lausanne in the midst of the campaign to organize the Summer Games in 2016,. - Candidate cities - Rio de Janeiro, Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo - presented their technical dossiers and answered questions from IOC members ".
The terms of awarding the Olympic Games to Rio are interested in justice in France, Brazil and the US for suspicion of corruption, the author.
Bubka's lawyer, in response to a reporter's question about the coincidence of the transaction with this Olympic meeting, assured that "there was no [connection] to the candidate cities" for hosting the 2016 Games. Balakhnichev also denied any links with the Olympic campaign and refused to answer most of the newspaper's questions, calling them "fake news".