Contractor flees Russia after refusing to pay Olympic bribes
LONDON -- They’ve been painting the Olympic rings on the new roads built around Sochi.
They may as well have been dollar signs for what they cost: just shy of $9
billion. It's become a local joke that the roads would have been cheaper if
they'd been paved with caviar.
Yet the best place to discover why costs have risen so high may not be among the gleaming new venues, but on a street in a town just outside London, where Valery Morozov, once an Olympic contractor -- now a fugitive -- lives.
He's fled Russia for fear of his life, he told CBS News, because he couldn’t stand the corruption anymore.
"I
was informed that there is a contract on my assassination," he said. Not
because he knew too much and could finger other people, but because, he said,
"They miscalculated me."
"The only one reason for this was their pockets," Morozov said. "There was only one reason."
Morozov rebuilt some of the crumbling facilities of the old Sochi resort. The kickbacks, he said, followed a familiar formula. The kickback was about 40 percent of the total contract.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said those who claim there's corruption should prove it. But with a suspect bidding process, little public accountability and the corruption running to high places, Valery Morozov said there is no incentive to investigate -- and nothing but trouble for anyone who tries.
