IOC provisionally suspends Carlos Nuzman, Brazilian Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee provisionally suspended Carlos Nuzman on Friday, a day after the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee was arrested as part of an investigation into alleged vote buying that helped Rio de Janeiro secure last year’s Olympics.

Nuzman is an honorary IOC member. Acting on the recommendation of its ethics commission, the IOC executive board suspended him and removed him from the coordinating commission for Tokyo 2020.

It also provisionally suspended the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), a move that freezes assets from the IOC to the COB. The decision will not affect Brazilian athletes, who will be able to compete under their flag at the Pyeongchang Olympics in February.

Brazilian national police arrested Leonardo Gryner, Nuzman’s right-hand man and director general of operations for Rio 2016, along with Nuzman on Thursday. O Globo reported that the two men met with Brazilian businessman Arthur Cesar de Menezes Soares Filho shortly before the 2009 IOC vote in Copenhagen that resulted in Rio getting the 2016 Summer Games over Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.

More:Arrest raises more questions about IOC’s response

Brazilian and French police believe Nuzman helped channel $2 million from Soares, known as “King Arthur,” to Senegal’s Lamine Diack through a Caribbean account controlled by his son, Papa Massata Diack. At the time, Lamine Diack was an IOC member and influential in securing the African bloc of votes.

Following the arrest Thursday, Brazilian police said Nuzman hampered their investigation by amending his tax declaration about two weeks after being held for questioning last month. Investigators said Nuzman’s net worth increased 457% in his last 10 years as president of the COB and that they recovered a key they believe to be for a safe in Switzerland that contains gold bars.

Nuzman’s attorney told reporters last month that his client was innocent of wrongdoing.

The IOC said it would lift the suspended of the Brazilian Olympic Committee when its governance issues have been satisfactorily addressed.

The executive board also provisionally suspended relations with the Rio Organizing Committee. While Rio 2016 has outstanding debts, the IOC’s obligations to it ended in December. The IOC would also lift that suspension once governance issues are addressed.

The decision to take action comes after an influential IOC member criticized the organization for not acting sooner.

Canadian Dick Pound, the longest serving IOC member, has been calling for an investigation since Brazilian national police searched Nuzman’s home in early September. On Thursday, he told USA TODAY Sports that Nuzman should be provisionally suspended and reiterated that the IOC needed to act to protect the reputation of the organization.

“I think every day that goes by without action damages the credibility,” Pound said.

Noting the IOC could be criticized for being too slow if it gets to the right conclusion, he added, “I don’t think you can just go on making speeches about how ethical the IOC is. That’s something you have to demonstrate.”

Contributing: Associated Press