(USA TODAY Sports) — The FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn are investigating allegations of corruption in the awarding of the 2016 Olympics to Brazil, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The Journal reported that the FBI and U.S. attorney's office were involved in an investigation after obtaining a U.S. grand jury subpoena in the case and cited two people familiar with the investigation but did not use their names.
The investigation is focused on alleged vote-buying and possible corruption in contracting for the Olympics, the Journal reported.
A investigation by Brazilian and French authorities led to the arrest of Carlos Nuzman, the head of Rio's Olympic organizing committee, in October amid a probe into a vote-buying scheme to bring the Games to Rio. U.S. authorities were asked to assist in that investigation, the Journal reported.
The U.S. grand jury subpoena was sent to Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho, known as Arthur Soares, according to the report. The subpoena asked that he testify before a grand jury in Brooklyn and to provide communications related to the IOC's vote in 2009 to select the host city for the 2016 Games.
Soares was charged in October by French and Brazilian prosecutors with funneling at least $2 million in bribes to the son of Senegalese IOC member Lamine Diack, at the request of Brazilian officials, according to the Journal report.
