Tokyo 'corruption' payment not on IOC agenda

Corruption suspicions did not come up when the Tokyo Olympic organising committee president met International Olympic Committee chiefs in Lausanne on Thursday. Tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 Games has come under scrutiny recently as French prosecutors investigate a suspect payment made by the Tokyo bid committee in 2013. Japan's national Olympic committee has declared the payment as "legitimate" and Yoshiro Mori said the issue was not raised by the IOC's executive board on Thursday. "I repeat the fact that the organising committee was formed after the declaration of the IOC president (in awarding the Games to Tokyo) in Buenos Aires three years ago," Mori told reporters. "In this organising committee there are no people associated with the bid committee." French prosecutors have said they believe a 2.8 million Singapore dollars (1.8 million euros, $2 million) payment made to a company owned by Papa Missata Diack was done to gain support for Tokyo's Olympic bid. Diack is the son of Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), who is facing corruption and money laundering charges in France. His son was employed as a consultant by the IAAF at the time while his father was also an IOC member, and thus able to vote for Olympic hosts. Diack junior, who also faces corruption charges in France, owned a company called Black Tidings that received the payment.