IOC says Paris 2024 cooperating with corruption probe, condemns boxing leadership

The national financial prosecutor's office (PNF) said the Paris 2024 headquarters were raided amid a preliminary investigation launched in 2017 into contracts made by the Summer Games' organising committee.

The headquarters of SOLIDEO, the public body responsible for delivering Olympic and Paralympic infrastructure, were also being searched amid a preliminary investigation dating back to 2022, following an audit by the French Anti-Corruption Agency, the PNF added.

"Paris 2024 is cooperating actively with investigators to facilitate their enquiries and provide answers to all the questions raised as quickly as possible," a Paris 2024 spokesperson said after the search ended at around 1730 local time (1530GMT), according to a Reuters witness.

The IOC Executive Board also spoke out against the language used by IBA President Umar Kremlev at an American Boxing Confederation meeting in Brasilia on Tuesday.

"The Executive Board of the IOC condemns the violent and threatening language used by the President of the IBA, Umar Kremlev, against a number of individuals from the IOC," it said in a statement.
 

The comments were made after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the IBA's urgent appeal to reverse the stripping of its recognition by the IOC.

The CAS decision comes after the IOC decided two weeks ago to strip the IBA of its recognition as the official international body for the sport over its failure to meet reform criteria.

"The President of the Appeals Arbitration Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today dismissed the IBA’s urgent request," CAS said.

The IOC had suspended the IBA in 2019 over governance, finance, refereeing and ethical issues and did not involve it in running the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The IBA has said the decision to exclude it from the Olympic body was "truly abhorrent and purely political".

It said its efforts on reforms had been largely ignored and not taken into consideration by the IOC.