Police arrest IOC exec for allegedly scalping Rio tickets

Brazilian police arrested a member of the IOC's executive board, Ireland's Patrick Hickey, in his hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday in connection with an investigation into ticket scalping at the Olympics. (Tasso Marcelo/AFP/Getty Images)

Brazilian police arrested a member of the IOC's executive board, Ireland's Patrick Hickey, in his hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday in connection with an investigation into ticket scalping at the Olympics, a spokesman said.

Police said in a statement they had discovered evidence linking Hickey, who heads the European Olympic Committees that includes all the national committees on the Continent, to an international scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.

Hickey was detained at the Windsor Marapendi Hotel near the Olympic Park and taken to a nearby hospital after his arrest. An online video, credited to ESPN, showed Hickey in a white bathrobe being apprehended and led away.

It was not immediately clear why he needed to be taken to hospital. A police spokesman was quoted by Ireland's RTE as saying it was a precautionary measure.

He later temporarily stepped down from his position as executive board member on the International Olympic Committee, president of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) and vice-president of the Association of National Olympic Committees.

The Olympic Council of Ireland said Hickey, its president, was stepping aside from all his Olympic functions until the matter was fully resolved. Hickey, 71, did not respond to calls for comment.

"Let's wait and see what the allegations regarding Mr. Hickey are," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters. "We have full confidence in the system. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty."

The EOC announced Wednesday afternoon that Slovenian Janez Kocijancic will take over Hickey's presidency.

Adams said the allegations concerned 1,000 tickets out of a total of 6.5 million that were made available for the Rio games.

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

Company denies accusations

Hickey was a member of the IOC's co-ordination commission for the Rio Games, the body in charge of overseeing preparations for the first Olympics held in South America.

His arrest comes after police detained last week a director of international sports hospitality company THG Sports, Kevin Mallon, and a translator employed by the company, alleging that they could have made 10 million reals ($3.9 million Cdn) from buying tickets and reselling them at a higher price.

A Brazilian judge on Monday also ordered the arrest of four more THG Sports executives on accusations of fraudulent ticket sales at the Olympics. A police spokesman, however, said the four men could not be detained because they were not in Brazil.

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.

Police say THG was also part of an alleged ticket-scalping scheme  uncovered during the 2014 World Cup.

Hickey, a white-haired sports administrator, is a former judoka and is honorary life president of the Irish Judo Federation. He has been head of the OCI since 1989.

With files from The Associated Press