A new documentary by Hajo Seppelt and screened by German broadcaster ARD (Geheimsache Doping – Die Schutzgeld-Erpresser) has revealed more dubious dealings within the IAAF. Below a summary of the program (apologies for any mis-spelling of names):
Hayo Seppelt (HS) visits Paris after receiving some new documents that seem to implicate IAAF officials.
He meets Yann Bouchez (YB) at French newspaper Le Monde. Together they are looking for clues about cover-ups of doping. Their first impression is that the extent of the cover-up is much greater than previously thought.
Doped marathon runner Liliya Shobukova already explained in an interview in 2014 how she was asked to pay money to be able to compete at the 2012 Olympics.
HS and JB find evidence of similar cases. A list of names is shown, with numbers that indicate the amount of protection money they paid to be able to continue to compete. It appears a total of almost almost $3.5 million in bribes was paid by the athletes or on behalf of the athletes. All athletes on the list are Russian top athletes. Shobukova is only one of six on the list. The others are Yulia Saripova, Vladimir Kanaykin, Valeri Borchin, Sergey Kirdiapkin, Olga Kaniskina.
Only Kaniskina and Borchin respond to the attempts to HS’s request for an interview, both denying they know anything, although it has already been proven they were doped.
An email from 2011 demonstrates that the IAAF knew there were suspicions regarding RUSADA. Attached to the email was a list of names which included the six previously mentioned athletes.
Some of them won medals in 2012, even though the IAAF and the Russian Federation knew but did nothing about the problem. HS is looking closer at the role of Balakhnichev who was president of the Russian athletics federation. HS says there are athletes from other countries that were under suspicion, but only the Russian cases could be proved so far.
An email by the Russian Federation is shown which explicitly states that “we strongly believe that the only way to avoid a huge scandal concerning covering-up the numerous ADRV which also involved almost all responsible IAAF officers is continuing joint efforts to keep the situation “under the table” as it was happening all these years. […] consequently, the official sanctioning including disqualification of results and medals is a direct way to destroy both the ARA and IAAF.” The email was authored by someone called Valentin.
In 2014 HS unsuccessfully tried to interview Balakhnichev, who maintained he was not involved at all.
An email from 2014 speaks of a ‘total protection project’. Should the Russian athletes be banned, the author was going to reveal everything, as he had enough material to prove criminal activity within the IAAF. But there could be another way, if everything remained under wraps.
Balakhnichev continues to deny any knowledge, he even took legal action against German broadcaster ARD, though without success. His name appears in connection with Lamine Diack, former IAAF president who has been banned and is being sued for corruption and money laundering. Diack is alleged to have received $1.5 million euro in cash from the Russian Federation, handed over by the Russian Federation’s president. The money was supposed to have been paid in 2011, at exactly the time when Russian athletes were under doping suspicions and about to be suspended.
French prosecutors recently asked Diack about this recently, but Diack said he would never accept money from athletes nor ask for money, and not from Valentin Balakhnichev either. If he needed money from the Russians, he would ask Putin. Diack’s son Papa Massata has been questioned about dubious deals by his firm Pamodzi Consulting. HS finds connections between New Mills Investments Ltd (a firm registered on a Carribean Island), which is run by Valentin Balakhnichev, and Pamodzi. The documents shown are about contracts worth millions. Lamine Diack’s other son, Khalil, told about how his brother also benefited from the dealings.
A few months ago the ARD was given a sound file: “Lamine Diack is the person who can solve the problem. For them to declare them officially clean we have to put something on the table. These are cases where money has to be involved. That’s done in cash, that’s it! No papers to sign. You have to be able to motivate the people you talk to. A lawyer will look after this.”
A certain lawyer is mentioned repeatedly and HS talks with Yann about it. He thinks it could be Habib Cisser, former lawyer of the IAAF, who also worked in Moscow for Balakhnichev. Cisser is based in Paris. Cisser tried to suppress documents which had been ceased from his office. Still, he denies everything, but he still has a lot to say. He says Lamine is only alive thanks to him.
It is now clear that marathon runner Shobukovoy had strict conditions placed on her to be allowed to compete in the London Olympics. “L. Shobuhovoy got permission to participate in the Olympic Games with the condition not to get involved in the fight for the medals.” She didn’t finish the marathon race. But two years later she was banned anyway. She asked for her money back. Her husband Igor received a refund from Singapore, from a firm called Black Tidings. The new documents show that only two days before the transfer to Igor, the firm Black Tidings received almost exactly the same sum of money, transferred from Senegal, by Pamodzi Consulting. But it wasn’t a complete refund. The athlete wasn’t refunded 150,000 euros. Igor told prosecutors that this money was meant for the lawyer, Habib.
There are revealing text messages. Massata Diack told Habib to pay pack the 50,000 euros he received in the Shobukova case because Valentin wanted a full refund to make the punishment and signature official. Habib wanted to pay half of the money immediately, the rest in 2 weeks, but Massata told Habib he couldn’t let the president (Valentin) wait that long, but 5 days would be OK.
The Parisian judiciary will probably only come to a conclusion in years.
HS wanted to talk to Seb Coe, who initially granted an interview, only for it be cancelled. Sven Arne Hansen eventually gave an interview, but he says the IAAF can’t comment because they have to wait for the court case to finish, until then there has to be the presumption of innocence.
The German Federation on the other hand is very interested, especially former lawyer and DLV president Clemens Prokop. He says in an interview that the repercussions of these revelations for the IAAF’s reputation are catastrophic.
HS goes to Glasgow to attend the WADA conference. He shows Craig Reedie the list of the six Russian athletes. Reedie says that’s information he’s never seen before.
However, a WADA letter from 7 Nov 2014 which was translated for French prosecutors suggests WADA met with a delegation of the Russian Ministry for Sport on 19 Sep 2014. The letter names the same Russian athletes. The people who attended this meeting were Craig Reedie and Olivier Niggli.
All Reedie did at the time was to hand the information over to the ethics commission of the IAAF. WADA took no other steps. Prokop calls this a complete failure of WADA, and he says that if those allegations are proven then the people involved should resign.
HS sees no end to this ongoing crisis.