In a remarkable coup, Atlanta won the right to host the Centennial Olympic Games, beating out sentimental favorite Athens, Greece ALSO: IOC promises to continue crackdown on corrupt members INTERACTIVE: The scandal: A closer look  Background: The five members of the SLOC ethics panel, all volunteers, are: Gordon Hall, a former chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court David Jordan, a former U.S. attorney for Utah Patricia Hanna, dean of the University of Utah college of humanities Barbara Day Lockhart, a two-time Olympic speedskater (1960 and 1964), who now is a Brigham Young University professor Merrill Norman, a forensic auditor and expert trial witness RELATED VIDEO CNN's Aram Roston reports on Atlanta's Olympic bidding process Windows Media 28K 80K

In this story: Atlanta gift list was "desperation" move Atlanta's multi-million dollar bid Payne's wish list RELATED STORIES, SITES

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (CNN) -- Mitt Romney, the son of the late Michigan governor George Romney and a prominent Mormon, is expected to be named Thursday as the next head of the embattled Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

Romney's name will be presented on Thursday at a SLOC board meeting, in which members will vote on whether to accept him as their chief.

The SLOC has been rocked by the largest scandal in Olympic history. Members of its committee have been accused of ethical violations by doling out lavish gifts and cash to members of the International Olympic Committee and their families before Salt Lake City won the right to host the 2002 Winter Games.

An independent ethics report released Tuesday found that Salt Lake Olympic officials gave Olympic delegates thousands of dollars in gifts, ranging from appliances, luggage, doorknobs and free trips to the Super Bowl and Disneyland.

Romney, who attended Brigham Young University, is in Salt Lake City and is expected to attend Thursday's meeting.

Romney helped start Bain Capital Incorporated in Boston and ran against Democrat Ted Kennedy for the U.S. Senate in 1994, but lost.

Romney would replace Frank Joklik, who stepped down as SLOC's chief executive officer in January. Joklik has maintained that he was unaware of the violations during his tenure.

Atlanta gift list was "desperation" move

The man who led Atlanta's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics said Wednesday that he considered, but never acted upon, some of the same type of questionable tactics allegedly used by SLOC.

A memo written by Payne indicates he suggested offering some IOC members gifts

Atlanta Games Chief Billy Payne even went so far as to draw up a list of potential gifts for IOC members who would vote on whether Atlanta would get to host the Games.

He outlined the gifts in a memo, just a month before Atlanta won the vote to host the Games. The note, titled "Personal Gift List," was addressed to Ginger Watkins, Payne's colleague on the Atlanta Olympic bid committee.

"It was out of desperation -- just an enumeration of all possible things. And as I said, they were never considered for implementation," Payne said.

The allegations surfaced earlier this week when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained a copy of the memo, dated August 20, 1990. Payne at first said the copy was a hoax, but admitted its existence when the original was found in boxes of Olympics papers stored at the Atlanta History Center.

"I was brain dumping, which is not uncharacteristic of me," Payne told the paper. "For every good idea I had, I had a thousand bad ideas."

On the list was a scholarship to the University of Georgia for the daughter of Pal Schmitt, the IOC member from Hungary.

Payne has recently said he thinks potential Olympic host cities giving scholarships to IOC family members would be unethical. But he said he must of considered this scholarship award because he knew Schmitt.

"When I become a good friend of someone, as I am of Pal Schmitt, I know his family, I know his children. It's a pleasure for me to develop those relationships and we did that. And that's exactly how we won," explained Payne.

For the Libyan representative, Bashir Mohammed Attarabulsi, Payne suggested free medical treatment. Attarabulsi recently resigned from the IOC after it was revealed that his son's education was allegedly paid for by the Salt Lake City's bid committee.