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January 10, 1999
Web posted at: 3:47 a.m. EST (0847 GMT)

SALT LAKE CITY (CNN) -- Four groups of investigators on two continents are continuing to examine bribery allegations following the resignations on Friday of the president and vice president of the Salt Lake Olympic organizing committee.

Two other Salt Lake senior executives were placed on paid leave over allegations that bribes helped land the 2002 Winter Games.

The resignations of Frank Joklik, president and CEO of the Olympic committee, and David Johnson, vice president, came amid disclosures that civic boosters gave money -- at least $70,000 in one case -- to members of the International Olympic Committee to further their efforts to secure the games.

Johnson

Joklik and Johnson helped Salt Lake land the games, although Joklik has said he knew nothing of bribes during his tenure.

The housecleaning Friday in Salt Lake came after a corporate sponsor of the games, U S West, withheld a $5 million payment as its executives expressed concern about the diminishing value of the phone company's investment.

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt said the housecleaning is the only way Salt Lake can assure sponsors and the Olympic community the city can successfully host the games.

Investigators are probing the scandal in Salt Lake; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Washington; and Lausanne, Switzerland.

Some investigators said their focus has shifted to Johnson and Tom Welch, who resigned in 1997, and who has been stripped of his $10,000-a-month consulting contract and $500,000 pension. He was at the helm of Salt Lake's quest of the games for a decade, including the years leading up to the winning IOC vote in 1995.

Joklik, Welch's successor, revealed Friday that investigators have learned that IOC members received cash payments ranging from $5,000 to $70,000, and such expensive gifts as educational, travel, housing and medical expenses. Joklik said one IOC member was assisted in making a profitable land investment.

The New York Times, quoting unidentified investigators, reported Saturday that IOC member Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of Congo had received payments totaling about $70,000 before the 1995 vote.

Attempts to contact Ganga for comment were unsuccessful. There was no answer to calls placed to his homes in Paris and Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, or his office in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Leavitt said Friday that Salt Lake Olympic board members were not aware of the alleged bribery because of "a systematic cover-up" orchestrated by a small group handling the cash.

"We were deceived. We were lied to," said banker Spencer Eccles, chairman of First Security Corp., who raised millions for the bid and is a key member of SLOC's executive committee. "I'm sick at heart."

Leavitt said Joklik's departure was a self-sacrifice so the Games -- just three years away -- can have a fresh start.

The bid committee's purpose was to oversee a small staff showcasing Salt Lake, its snow and its sports facilities for the Olympic community. While employees wooed IOC members, board members focused on raising money from friends and corporations for the bid effort.

After Salt Lake won, the bid committee formed the nucleus for the larger organizing committee.

Robert Garff, chairman of the organizing committee, said the future of some board members "will be part of the discussion" once SLOC's outside ethics panel finishes its investigation.

The ethics panel, led by a former Utah Supreme Court justice and including a former U.S. attorney, is scrambling to finish its report by Thursday's organizing committee meeting.

The IOC expects to wrap up its own bribery probe by January 23, and the U.S. Olympic Committee's investigative report is due by February 28. The Justice Department has not said how long it might take to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Nolan Karras, who is the governor's stand-in on the organizing committee and was involved in the bid before 1991, says the board could be blamed if it did not set up policies to prevent such payments.

The board required checks of any significant amount to have two signatures and had outside auditors study the soundness of the safeguards and the propriety of the spending, Karras said.

IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch expressed regret about Friday's resignations but said he has confidence Salt Lake will be able to stage the games successfully.

But a member of the Salt Lake committee, Ken Bullock, called on Samaranch to resign. "Until President Samaranch follow's Frank's example, the Olympic movement will not be able to move forward," Bullock said. "We have to clean up our act."

Verl Topham, senior vice president of PacifiCorp and a longtime board member for both the bid and organizing efforts, said he is "personally devastated" by the scandal and the revelations. "We had taken the position as a board that we would not engage in activities of this nature."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.