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(Photo: GETTY)
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The U.S. Justice Department brought indictments against leaders of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Committee for bribing International Olympic Committee members to secure the city's bid to host the games.
The city had attempted to secure the games several times, but failed each time. In 1995 Salt Lake City was announced as the host city, but in 1998 accusations that IOC members took bribes from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee surfaced.
The scandal broke on December 10, 1998, when Swiss IOC member Marc Hodler, head of the coordination committee overseeing the organization of the 2002 games, announced that several members of the IOC had taken bribes. Soon four independent investigations were underway: by the IOC, the USOC, the SLOC, and the United States Department of Justice.
Before any of the investigations could even get under way both Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, who were in charge of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, resigned their posts. Many others soon followed. The Department of Justice filed charges against the two: fifteen charges of bribery and fraud. Johnson and Welch were eventually acquitted of all criminal charges in December 2003.
As a result of the investigation ten members of the IOC were expelled and another ten were sanctioned. This was the first expulsion or sanction for corruption in the more than a century the IOC had existed. Although nothing strictly illegal had been done, it was felt that the acceptance of the gifts was morally dubious. Stricter rules were adopted for future bids and ceilings were put into place as to how much IOC members could accept from bid cities. Additionally new term and age limits were put into place for IOC membership, and fifteen former Olympic athletes were added to the committee.
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