The unsuccessful International Olympic Committee presidential candidate who promised that if he were elected, IOC members would be paid a "minimum" of $50,000 annually, may still face sanctions, an ethics official said Friday.
Francois Werner, staff investigator for the IOC Ethics Commission, said the case is not closed against Un Yong Kim, the South Korean IOC member who was the only candidate in the presidential race sanctioned in the Salt Lake bid scandal.
"It's not closed because I have talked with many people outside the Olympic family and everyone is deeply shocked," Werner told the Deseret News in a telephone interview. "We need to decide if he's already punished because he's lost or if he needs more punishment."
If the ethics commission, which is not scheduled to meet until October at the earliest, decides Kim violated the rules established earlier this year for IOC presidential candidates, he could face a verbal or written warning.
Kim was traveling in China and unavailable for comment, his New York City-based spokesman, Bill Schechter, said Friday. Schechter said "any such action on the part of the IOC would be grossly unfair and unwarranted."
Kim came in second in a five-way race to succeed longtime IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in the July election held in Moscow. The winner was Jacques Rogge, a Belgian surgeon who participated in the IOC's investigation of the Salt Lake bid scandal.
Kim was one of 10 members sanctioned as a result of the IOC investigation into allegations that Salt Lake bidders handed out more than $1 million in cash and gifts to IOC members during the campaign for the 2002 Winter Games.
Another 10 IOC members were expelled or forced to resign, and five people including Kim's son, John, and former bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson face federal charges in connection with the case.
The commission already considered a complaint about the campaign promise brought by the Prince of Orange, an IOC member from the Netherlands. Kim told the commission he "never proposed any figure in this matter."
But shortly before the election, Kim told the Deseret News and other news organizations in an interview that $50,000 would be the minimum needed annually by each IOC member to maintain an office. Kim has told the Deseret News he did not dispute the report.
One of those calling for a further investigation into Kim's campaign promise is Marc Hodler, a senior IOC member from Switzerland.
"The proposal to offer $50,000 to every IOC member was really more than unethical. I hope they (the ethics commission) do something," Hodler said Friday in a telephone interview from his home in Switzerland.
In another Olympic development this week, the IOC's top marketer has not yet lost his position despite a letter sent to sponsors that suggested the IOC is not committed to reforms made as a result of the Salt Lake bid scandal.
Canadian Dick Pound, who wrote the letter after losing his bid to succeed Samaranch, met for the first time with Rogge to discuss his future, Agence France-Presse reported Friday.
"It was a very good meeting," Pound told a Paris-based reporter after sitting down with Rogge in Switzerland on Thursday. "We have agreed to have another one in the near future."
Pound said he could still resume his marketing duties, which included signing international-level sponsors for the 2002 Winter Games. "We are looking for a mutually agreeable resolution," he was quoted as saying.
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com