Former Rio de Janeiro governor says he paid $2m bribe to secure hosting rights

Ex-Rio state governor Sergio Cabral confirmed he helped to pay $2m in bribes to secure the 2016 Olympic Games were held in the Brazilian city.

Cabral who is currently serving a 200-year sentence for several corruption cases told a judge earlier this week that the money went to then-president of the IAAF Lamine Diack, and was used to buy up to nine votes in the 2009 decision-making meeting.

It was said that the negotiations were handled by former head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Nuzman. Nuzman was arrested in 2017 amid investigations into corruption. He claims innocence, in contrast to Cabral’s recent statement,  “Nuzman came to me and said, Sergio, I want to tell you about the president of the International Athletics Federation, IAAF, Lamine Diack, he’s someone who is open to taking bribes.”

Cabral also mentioned that Brazil’s then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and former mayor of the city, Eduardo Paes, had been informed after the transactions had occurred but that they did not participate in the scheme.

The revelation comes as plea bargain in hope that the information may lead to a reduction in lengthy sentences facing both him and his wife, Adriana Ancelmo, in relation to a corruption case involving the construction company that built the Rio Games.