Irish Olympic Chief Stands Down After Rio Arrest

Police said in a statement they had discovered evidence linking Hickey to an global scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.

Rio de Janeiro authorities issued an arrest warrant for an International Olympic Committee executive accused of scalping tickets for the Summer Games as part of a wider probe of tickets allocated to Ireland that were being sold for higher fees. He was president of the European Olympic Committees as well as president of the Olympic Council of Ireland. Hickey’s son Stephen used to work at THG.

“We don’t know what the allegations or charges are yet”, he said. Police, however, found Hickey’s Olympic accreditation badge on the floor, along with his shoes, socks and bag. He remains in the hospital under police custody.

The former judo athlete built his powerbase through the sport, going on to lead the entire Irish team at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics before being elected an International Olympic Committee member in 1995.

The police said they had discovered evidence linking 71-year-old Irishman Pat Hickey to an global scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.

Police said the arrest was related to that of fellow Irishman Kevin James Mallon on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony. He joined the ruling executive board four years ago.

Police have not questioned any other International Olympic Committee officials, Adams said, adding that the body was ready to provide any assistance in the investigation to the authorities in Brazil.

Adams said the allegations concerned 1,000 tickets out of a total of 6.5 million that were made available for the Rio games. “We have full confidence in the system”.

Asked this week if organizers would consider dropping prices to make tickets more accessible to locals and to drive last-minute sales, Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio organizing committee, said revenue from tickets was critical to funding the event.

“Continuing our investigation, civil police discovered the involvement of Patrick in the global scheme of ticket scalping”, the Rio police fraud unit said.

The Irish body announced that Hickey would be relinquishing all Olympic roles while being investigated for scalping.

THG has rejected the accusations against the company and Mallon, saying that more than 1,000 tickets seized by police were being held legally on behalf of authorized Irish reseller Pro 10 and criticizing local Olympic organizers.

An Irish executive was arrested last week in the same investigation.

The tickets that were allegedly being sold were registered to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) which confirmed that it is carrying out its own inquiries. Some of the tickets had the Olympic Council of Ireland name on them.