U.S. law-enforcement officials are "investigating allegations of corruption in the awarding of the 2016 Olympic Games to Brazil," people familiar with the investigation said, according to Kiernan & O'Brien of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The investigation is being led by the FBI’s N.Y. field office, along with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, according to a U.S. grand-jury subpoena in the case and two of the people familiar with the matter. The U.S. probe is in addition to investigations by Brazilian and French authorities into "alleged criminal activity" connected to the Rio de Janeiro Games and other int'l athletic competitions. The subpoena, as well as accounts of people familiar with the matter, indicate that the U.S. probe is "focused on alleged vote-buying and possible corruption in contracting for the 2016 Olympics, including for lucrative media and marketing rights." The probe is reportedly being led by the same FBI squad and group of federal prosecutors that in '15 brought charges alleging "wide-ranging corruption" in int'l football and which for two years have been investigating alleged state-sponsored Russian doping in the Olympics (WSJ, 12/13).
