On 5 August, the day of the

2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 5 August 2016 in the Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, starting at 20:00 BRT (23:00 UTC). As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings combined the ...

, police in Rio de Janeiro arrested two people for attempted illegal resale of hundreds of tickets allocated to the

Olympic Council of Ireland The Olympic Federation of Ireland or OFI ( ga, Cónaidhm Oilimpeach na hÉireann) (called the Irish Olympic Council until 1952 and the Olympic Council of Ireland until 2018) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the island of Ireland. At ...

(OCI). The scandal precipitated the dramatic arrest of OCI president

Pat Hickey Patrick Hickey may refer to: * Patrick Hickey (artist) (1927–1998), Irish visual artist * Pat Hickey (ice hockey) (born 1953), Canadian ice hockey player * Pat Hickey (footballer) (1871–1946), Australian rules footballer * Pat Hickey (politicia ...

, while in a hotel room assigned to his son. Hickey immediately resigned, as well as relinquishing his membership of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

, his role as president of the European Olympic Committees and his role as vice-president of the

Association of National Olympic Committees The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) is an international organization that affiliates the current 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Each year it gathers all its membe ...

First arrests

On 5 August, the day of the

, police in Rio de Janeiro arrested two people for attempted illegal resale of hundreds of tickets allocated to the

(OCI). One of the two, Kevin Mallon, was an executive with

THG Sports THG Sports (The Hospitality Group) was a provider of sports ticketing services and corporate hospitality programmes at sporting events around the world It has 69 offices globally and has around 3,000 employees who provide access to over 350 major ...

, which was the OCI's authorised ticket reseller (ATR) in 2012 but not 2016; the OCI denied any involvement. Pro 10 Sports Management, the OCI's 2016 ATR, said the man arrested was working as their agent to distribute tickets which had been paid for legitimately.

Arrest of Hickey

On 17 August,

, the OCI president, was arrested in Rio in connection with the investigation. A Brazilian judge remanded him in custody after concluding Hickey was a flight risk, and citing previous experience of then THG CEO James Sinton being investigated in relation to a

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

ticket scam, being granted bail, leaving Brazil and never returning to face justice. Hickey was charged with three crimes. On 18 August, Hickey resigned as President of the OCI and that role passed to Willie O'Brien; Hickey also resigned his membership of the

, his role as president of the European Olympic Committees and his role as vice-president of the

. At a news conference that afternoon, police presented Hickey's passport, Olympic credentials and air ticket to the world's media and explained that Rio's Civil Police Fraud Unit had arrested Hickey at about 6 a.m. (10 a.m. in Ireland). Having initially been told by his wife that her husband had returned to Ireland, Hickey was discovered in a separate hotel room assigned to his son and taken into custody. He was later photographed being wheeled from a hospital after complaining about heart problems and being given the all-clear by medical staff. On 20 August, Hickey and Mallon were reported to be sharing a prison cell. The same day, Brazilian police were reported to be investigating bank accounts linked to Hickey and others, stated their belief that a "relationship" exists between Hickey and English businessman

Marcus Evans Marcus Paul Bruce Evans (born 18 August 1963) is an English businessman. He is originally from Walsham-le-Willows, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, but grew up near Wimbledon, London. He founded his company, Marcus Evans, in 1983. The group o ...

(owner of THG Sports) and told of an attempt being made to profit by millions of euro. Meanwhile, former Irish sports minister

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...

revealed Hickey tried to get financial assistance from Ireland's government for his son's corporate hospitality venue at London's

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. On 24 August 2016 Rio Police presented details of emails between Marcus Evans of THG and Hickey discussing the sale of tickets for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Charges and suspension of case

Hickey was due to face trial in Brazil over his alleged role in the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) ticketing affair after a Rio de Janeiro judge accepted the charges made by a public prosecutor against him and nine others. Public prosecutor Marcos Kac charged Hickey and nine others with ticket-touting, ambush marketing, theft, tax evasion, money-laundering, and criminal association. Hickey was allowed his passport back in November 2016 for a bond payment of 410,000 Euros. The month after The Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) loaned the money to Hickey so he could go back to Ireland. But in November 2017, the

Brazilian Supreme Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for const ...

suspended the case against Hickey and the other accused, all of whom deny any wrongdoing, in order to examine the merits of the prosecution case and of the

Habeas Corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

request by lawyers for one of his co-accused, Kevin Mallon of

, after the lawyers had argued that they could not mount a proper defence as the prosecution had presented no evidence, and "nor was there clarity on his alleged involvement in any crime". It was not known how long this would take, and this was still unclear in June 2019 when Olympic Federation of Ireland President Sarah Keane expressed the hope that the

's Ethics Commission would conclude its own investigation of the case before the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. In the meantime, Hickey and others had been criticised for lack of cooperation by the subsequent Moran inquiry into the matter.

Role of Shane Ross

Before Hickey's arrest, Irish

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport The Minister for Transport ( ga, An tAire Iompair) is a senior minister in the Government of Ireland and leads the Department of Transport. The current Minister for Transport is Eamon Ryan, TD. He is also Minister for the Environment, Climate ...

Shane Ross promised a "robust inquiry" of his own, after expressing concern at the lack of an independent investigation. On 14 August, Ross flew to Rio de Janeiro to meet with Hickey. He did so twice, "in tense circumstances" shortly before Hickey's arrest. Ross attempted to have Hickey permit an independent member be included on the OCI's inquiry. Following Hickey's arrest, Ross flew back in Dublin to meet

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Máire Whelan Máire Rita Whelan (born 24 November 1956) is an Irish judge who has served on the Court of Appeal since June 2017. She previously served as Attorney General of Ireland from 2011 to 2017. She was the first woman to hold the office of Attorney Gen ...

. Meanwhile, Brazilian police revealed an email they found on Hickey's phone calling for Ross to be "put back into his box".

John Delaney, ''et al.''

On 21 August, Brazilian police conducted an early morning raid at the Irish office in the Olympic village. They confiscated the passports of three OCI members; Team Ireland Chef de Mission Kevin Kilty, OCI Secretary General Dermot Henihen and OCI chief executive Stephen Martin. They also confiscated electronic equipment and unused Olympic tickets. The other names on the warrant included OCI officials Linda O'Reilly and Willie O'Brien, the man who had earlier replaced Hickey as president. The passports of Team Ireland Chef de Mission Kevin Kilty, OCI Secretary General Dermot Henihen and OCI chief executive Stephen Martin were subsequently returned as they were deemed to be of no further interest to the investigation. Brazilian police were also given permission to seize a sixth passport, that of Football Association of Ireland (FAI) chief executive John Delaney, who is also OCI vice-president and was a prominent figure in Irish sport.

Investigations

Non-statutory inquiry

A non-statutory inquiry headed by retired High Court judge, Mr Justice Carroll Moran, to investigate the issue was announced on 24 August.

OCI review

On 25 August, the OCI announced data security firm Espion to secure, copy and seal the OCI server and all OCI electronic data. The following day, the OCI announced it had appointed auditors Grant Thornton to conduct its own review of the issue. On 9 September the OCI announced, that it had chosen Deloitte to review the manner in which the OCI is governed under its current constitution.

References

External links

What happened when? A timeline of Ireland's Olympic ticketing scandal

Making headlines: How the world reacted to the arrest of Ireland's Pat Hickey

* ttp://www.independent.ie/business/irish/olympic-ticketing-scandal-who-is-marcus-evans-34981299.html Olympic ticketing scandal: Who is Marcus Evans? {{Olympic Games controversies 2016 Summer Olympics 2016 scandals Olympic Games controversies Olympic Ticket Scandal Ticket Scandal 2016 crimes in Brazil Olympic Ticket Olympic Ticket Tickets