Sergei Bubka can take a deep breath. His reputation is intact, his future as a leader will not be compromised. The former Ukrainian pole vaulter, ex-world record holder, was cleared on Wednesday August 22, 2018 of suspicion of corruption against him in the awarding of the Summer Games to Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The news came via a press release from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the new independent structure created by the IAAF to poke its nose into cases of doping or corruption, which are numerous in these difficult times, involving managers, coaches or athletes. After investigating suspicious transfers made by Sergei Bubka during the 2016 Games bid campaign, the AIU closed the file, explaining “ take no action against Sergei Bubka. »
The Ukrainian is clean, says the AIU. At least for now. “ Based on the evidence available at this time, there is no prima facie case of violation of the IAAF rules.", she says, specifying that she carried out the investigation “ for almost a year. » Clearly, the former pole vaulter would not have corrupted anyone, as he always claimed.
But the IAU also suggests that “ criminal investigations are ongoing”, and that she could therefore take charge of the file in the event that “ new evidence would emerge. » Unlikely scenario.
Recall of facts. In September 2017, Le Monde publishes an incriminating investigation into Sergei Bubka. The daily article, titled "Suspicions of corruption at the IOC: the dangerous connections of Sergei Bubka", reveals the existence of suspicious payments to one of the major players in the corruption scandal surrounding the award of the Games to Rio in 2016, Valentin Balakhnichev, the former president of the Russian Athletics Federation, and treasurer of the IAAF, now suspended.
Le Monde advances, based on documents, that Sergei Bubka made a transfer of $18 on June 2009, 45 to New Mills Investments Ltd, an offshore company domiciled in Nevis, a tax haven in the Antilles. Disturbing fact: the beneficiary of New Mills Investments is none other than Valentin Balakhnichev, suspected of having hidden cases of doping in his country and of having ransomed athletes.
The day before Sergei Bubka's transfer, New Mills Investments had transferred a similar sum – $45 – to the company Pamodzi Sports, owned by Papa Massata Diack, son of former IAAF president Lamine Diack, also suspended.
Furthermore, a criminal investigation established a link between Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho and the Pamodzi Sports company. The first would have paid 1,5 million dollars into the account of the second during the last weeks preceding the IOC vote for the award of the 2016 Games. At the material time, Lamine Diack was still president of the IAAF. Above all, he was a full member of the IOC. So he voted.
It is difficult, faced with such a concordance of dates and figures, not to conclude that there was an attempt to corrupt Sergei Bubka by the numerous intermediaries, led by Papa Massata Diack and Valentin Balakhnichev, involved in the bid campaign for the 2016 Games.
Sergei Bubka never disputed the existence of a transfer to New Mills Investments. But he justified it with a consulting service as part of the international development of Pole Vault Stars, an indoor pole vault competition organized in his hometown of Donetsk, in Ukraine.
Case closed, then. Sergei Bubla will not join Frankie Fredericks, another former athletics glory, swept away by the wave of corruption cases. The Ukrainian can keep his many hats, including the vice-president of the IAAF and a status as a member of the IOC Executive Board. Otherwise, the entire Olympic movement would have been shaken.
