The head of the powerful IOC commission in charge of measuring the technical quality of L.A.'s '24 Games bid is under a cloud of scandal. Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks, chair of the '24 Evaluation Commission, was named Friday in a French report as the recipient of a $300,000 payment from a scandal-plagued fellow IOC member on the same day the IOC voted to award the '16 Games to Rio. Fredericks is scheduled to visit L.A. next month to inspect the city’s plans. According to the Le Monde newspaper, Fredericks’ company received the payment from a firm controlled by former IAAF President Lamine Diack’s son. Diack was then an influential voting member of the IOC and is now the focus of an ongoing corruption investigation in France. According to French prosecutors, the payments to Fredericks came shortly after Pamodzi Consulting, the Diack-run company, received $1.42M from Matlock Capital Group, linked to Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho, who stood to benefit greatly from a Rio win. Fredericks told Le Monde the payment was for a contract dating to '07, unrelated to the IOC vote. The IOC said Fredericks has contacted the IOC ethics commission, which will investigate further. "As far as Mr. Fredericks is concerned, he informed the IOC and explained the situation and emphasised his innocence immediately upon being contacted by the journalist,” IOC Dir of Communications Mark Adams said. "The IOC trusts that Mr. Fredericks will bring all the elements to prove his innocence against these allegations made by Le Monde.” The IOC said it is already complying with the underlying investigation that led to the new disclosures about the Rio bidding, and “remains fully committed to clarifying this situation, working in cooperation with the prosecutor.” The IOC also emphasized that it banned Diack from IOC duties in '15.
