According to files obtained by Associated Press, Toronto consultant Mahmoud Elfarnawani wrote the notes that are being used as evidence in the bribery indictment of Salt Lake City bid executives Tom Welch and Dave Johnson.
The notes titled “What is needed for” are evidence federal prosecutors will use to argue that Welch and Johnson tried identifying where IOC members votes could be bought.
Elfarnawani was born in Egypt, and was among several consultants hired by Welch and Johnson to provide personal information on IOC members. Elfarnawani, who once boasted he “assured” the Arab vote for Salt Lake, began working for Salt Lake in late 1992 and was paid $148,260 until 1996.
He was interviewed by FBI and Justice Department investigators in July 1999. David M. Goodman, Elfarnawani’s Toronto lawyer was not certain Elfarnawani, who is a Canadian citizen, would be called as a trial witness, but said a heart condition usually keeps him from traveling.
Elfarnawani suggested Salt Lake bidders invited sons or grandsons of IOC members Mohamed Zerguini of Algeria and Bashir Attarabulsi of Libya to the United Sates. Elfarnawani said “I ask if there is a possiblity, to what you call it, billet, have one of the families in Salt Lake City as a guest for a month or two weeks or something like that in order to practice his English”. Zerguini received a “serious warning’ from the IOC last year after a Salt Lake ethics panel reported the bid committee paid $14,500 in cash to one of his grandson for no apparent reason.
Efarnawani says “I worked for Salt Lake City, and it was directed by Welch and Dave Johnson, and both of them were doing their job to influence the vote for Salt Lake City. But I never mentioned anything about giving money or any kind of bribery”.
The charges also say Elfarnawani gave Salt Lake bidders a bank account number for a son of Genereal Zein Gadir of Sudan, who was expelled by the IOC for taking more than $20,000 in cash and scholarships from Salt Lake.