Tokyo Olympics Bid Chief Says He Knew 'Nothing' Of $2M Payment To Singaporean Firm

The head of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics bid team on Thursday said that "he knew nothing about a multi-million-dollar payment made to a Singaporean firm linked to a disgraced athletics official despite being tasked with overseeing other consulting contracts," according to KYODO. A day after Japan Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda announced a new probe into the legality of the 2.8M Singaporean dollar ($2.04M) payment to Black Tidings, Masato Mizuno, the CEO of Tokyo’s bidding committee, said that "he had nothing to do with the company." Mizuno said, "I was not involved with that contract. This is the first time for me to have any knowledge of it." Mizuno said that "he spent a lot of time overseas during the final stage of the 2020 bidding race, and that he was put in charge of administrative duties" (KYODO, 5/19).