A former U.S. Olympic Committee official agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to felony tax charges in connection with not just Salt Lake City's tainted bid for the 2002 Winter Games but also a failed effort by Rome to get the 2004 Summer Games.
It's the first time another bid has been implicated in the U.S. Department of Justice's ongoing criminal investigation of Salt Lake City's bid campaign, in which more than $1 million was spent to influence the votes of the International Olympic Committee.Alfredo LaMont, who was forced to resign as the USOC's international relations director in January 1999, waived a formal indictment and filed a plea agreement in advance of pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City Tuesday.
Also, in a written statement submitted to the court, LaMont said that about one month before the IOC voted in June 1995 to give the Games to Salt Lake City, two unnamed bid committee officials "requested that I assist them in secretly making payments from (the bid committee) to a member of the IOC in order to ensure that he would vote for Salt Lake City."
LaMont is charged with one count of conspiring to impede and obstruct the Internal Revenue Service in connection with a consulting agreement he made with the Salt Lake Bid Committee worth more than $48,000.
He also pleaded guilty to one count of making a false declaration on an income tax return in connection with $40,000 he received from Rome's bid committee in 1997. Rome lost the 2004 Summer Games to Athens, Greece.
The investigation into the charge involving the Rome committee is continuing, said Justice Department spokesman John Russell.
Franklin Servan-Schreiber, the IOC's spokesman, said Tuesday he was not aware of the contract between LaMont and the Rome bid committee. But the IOC has already enacted many reforms and does not expect to see such a scandal again.
"We feel we already learned the lessons we need to learn from this, whether another past bid is implicated or not," Servan-Schreiber said.
Together, the two charges LaMont faces are punishable by a maximum of eight years in prison and a $350,000 fine, Russell said. LaMont was scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon before U.S. District Magistrate Ronald Boyce.
According to an information document filed Tuesday, LaMont first discussed with unnamed members of the Salt Lake bid committee in 1988 the possibility of becoming a paid consultant for the bid for the 1998 Winter Games, which failed.
The USOC selected Salt Lake City as its choice for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Games in 1989. LaMont then agreed to become a consultant under the alias of Alonso Gil Salinas, the purported president of what investigators said is a fictitious company, Citius.
LaMont was to receive $20,000 plus $2,500 for each "IOC confirmed vote for Salt Lake City," the court documents state.
Under the alias Antonio Aguilar, LaMont "executed a consulting contract" between Citius and the bid committee that called for him to receive $20,000 between March and September 1990 and later an additional $20,000 for services between October 1992 and June 1993, according to the court documents.
Most of the money was made payable to Citius and sent to an unidentified individual in Mexico City, who was to transfer the money to LaMont. But the documents stated that some checks were also deposited to a bank in Brownsville, Texas, under an account that LaMont controlled.
Between March 1990 and August 1993, the bid committee issued 13 checks, most made payable to Citius, for a total of $48,514.35. In each instance, the checks were delivered to an address in Mexico City, and then the money was forwarded to LaMont.
In each of those years, LaMont failed to report the income received from the bid committee to the IRS. In April 1998, LaMont failed to report an additional $40,000 he had received in 1997 by the Rome bid committee, the documents state.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee has tried all along to distance itself from the ongoing investigation, which is taking a toll on the budget for the 2002 Winter Games. Tuesday was no different.
"While we have cooperated fully with the ongoing work of the Justice Department, we remain entirely focused and committed to staging a successful Games," said Shelley Thomas, SLOC senior vice president of public communications.
The investigation is "taking extra resources and money," Thomas said. And time, especially if any of the cases go to trial. "We hope for the benefit of the Games, the conclusion is swift," she said.
The chief executive officer of the USOC, Norm Blake, said in a written statement issued Tuesday that "LaMont had acted without our knowledge in activities that were violations of our conflict-of-interest policies for employees."
Blake called LaMont's dealings with the Salt Lake bid a "completely inappropriate and undisclosed business relationship" and said the USOC conducted its own "aggressive and thorough internal investigation" of its role.
That probe determined "no other USOC staff members were involved in these actions."
Tom Schaffer, an attorney for Tom Welch, the former bid committee leader believed to be one of the targets of the federal investigation, said he doesn't believe the case has any effect on his client.
"I don't see how it could. If this guy's cheating on his taxes, we didn't prepare his tax return for him," Schaffer said.