South Korea’s Kim Un-yong could be in hot water after published reports said he is proposing to give IOC members $50,000 minimum per year, to pay for the expenses of doing IOC work, and to bestow them with the title of “Olympic ambassador”.
He said such funding would be needed by IOC members to maintain an office and fulfill their duties.
But Kim denied those reports in a letter to the IOC’s ethics commission.
In the letter he said, “I attach for your information a copy of my program which has been confidentially distributed to the IOC members, according to the ethics code. I ever proposed any figure in this matter”.
A statement from the ethics commission, headed by Judge Keba Mbaye, said that such a proposal “would have exceeded the limits of a candidate’s program and represented a promise…forbidden by the directions concerning the election of the IOC president”.
In an effort to head off any allegations of attempted bribery, Kim showed reporters a copy of his election platform – under IOC rules it is treated as a confidential document. He said he was angered that details of his campaign proposals had been leaked to journalists.
Kim said, “somebody’s exploiting it”, blaming it on the “crazy frenzy” of the election.
U.S. candidate Anita DeFrantz, when asked how the proposal differs from such things as the vote-buying allegations that created the Salt Lake City bid scandal, said: “I think to the outside world it would sound the same”.
And Canadian Dick Pound, another candidate, called it an affront to IOC members, who receive from the IOC only reimbursement of travel expenses to IOC meetings and the Olympic Games.
