As expected, the SLOC Board of Ethics announced it isn't going to investigate Kevan Gosper, the latest member of the International Olympic Committee enmeshed in the bid scandal.

But surprisingly, after meeting for about an hour behind closed doors Thursday afternoon, the board emerged with a statement that didn't clear Gosper, either.The IOC vice president from Australia wasn't mentioned by name in the 21/2-page statement read by board chairwoman Barbara Lockhart, who declined to answer questions.

The statement strongly suggested that the board will not have anything further to do with the allegations that Gosper accepted a trip to Salt Lake City in 1993 for his family that was valued at more than $11,000.

The board finished the job of investigating the bid a year ago, the statement said, and "is satisfied that the conclusions in our report remain valid."

Gosper's name did not turn up in the board's 250-page report, issued Feb. 8, 1999. The report did cite a number of trips taken by IOC members at the expense of Salt Lake bidders, including jaunts to the Super Bowl and Paris.

But according to Thursday's statement from the board, "the omission of an individual was not intended as an exoneration. We did not undertake an individualized investigation of every member of the IOC."

That was up to the IOC, the board said. All of the documents and other evidence gathered -- "much of which raised more questions than it answered"-- were turned over to the IOC for follow-up with individual members.

"We tried to act responsibly in not including in the report speculation damaging the reputation of individuals who might have legitimate explanations for their dealings with the bid committee," the board said.

Gosper has already referred the accusations, made by a British journalist, to the IOC's own ethics commission. The commission, created in response to the scandal, won't meet again until early March.

In Australia, Gosper said he's not expecting any apologies from the Salt Lake committee but expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing by the IOC commission. "I don't need anybody else to speak up for me, and I'll simply leave the matter where it is with the ethics commission, and in due course they'll make a statement," he said.

A federal criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice is under way. Eight members of the IOC, including IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, have already been interviewed by investigators.

The IOC conducted its own investigation into Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Games, which helped uncover the more than $1 million in cash, gifts, scholarships and trips given to influence the IOC's 1995 vote.

Ten IOC members were either expelled or forced to resign, and others, including the second IOC member from Australia, Phil Coles, were issued warnings for accepting a share of the largess.

Gosper's name was absent from that report, too. The accusations made by longtime IOC critic Andrew Jennings are the first to link Gosper to the scandal.

Gosper maintains that the bid committee was reimbursed $2,000 to cover the cost of private accommodations for his wife and two children at Deer Valley, and that he has credit card receipts for other expenses.

Both Gosper and Dick Pound, the IOC vice president who headed up the Swiss-based organization's internal investigation, have said the bid committee is guilty of "entrapment" because of the way the expenses were reported.

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Documents have surfaced showing bid committee officials knew Gosper intended to pay for the trip, but told him the condominium cost $100 less a night than it actually did. The bid committee apparently paid the difference.

Gosper has gone so far as to suggest that the bid committee may have been moving money around to free up funds for the college scholarships, cash payments and other inducements paid to some IOC members.

Lockhart said earlier in the week the board would review records from the Gosper trip. In the statement she read Thursday, the bid committee's record-keeping was described as, "in many cases, incomplete and inadequate."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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