Atlanta organizer Billy Payne, at a ceremony celebrating the IOC's choice of Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games

September 11, 1999
Web posted at: 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT)

In this story: Acted honorably, Atlanta memo says Vacations to Disney World RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Organizers of Atlanta's effort to win the 1996 Summer Olympics compiled detailed dossiers on members of the International Olympic Committee and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on gifts, first-class vacations and lavish hospitality, documents obtained by CNN show.

Next week, the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games is expected to send a revised report to Congress on its bidding activities, based on those documents.

The head of the subcommittee looking into Atlanta's successful Olympic bid says the disclosures are troubling.

"It appears as though there was a concerted effort to figure out how they might be able to buy votes for Atlanta -- a dossier maybe on most, if not all of the voting members (of the IOC,)" said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Michigan).

One memo describes how an IOC official "likes the good life, wine, women (some say men as well) and song. ... Visit to Atlanta should be low key with press but an all out orgy."

Another memo written by a lawyer who worked to win the games described inside information he researched about IOC members. It names those who "can be bought."

Another document written for the organizers describes some IOC members' tastes. For one, it said, "Gifts are OK. Gift of female OK." Another memo said: "Will sell his vote, and will do so openly."

Asked to respond to the documents CNN viewed, ACOG spokesman Lee Echols said the confidential memos were prepared simply to gather information about the Olympic bidding process.

"Although language in the memos may sound somewhat sensational, that was the language of others, not ours," Echols said.

The man who headed ACOG, Billy Payne, was not available to comment on the documents obtained by CNN. But in an interview in February, he said, "We acted honorably. Everybody in Atlanta and Georgia and indeed the world can feel good about the integrity with which we won the Games."

CNN found no evidence in the documents that cash bribes were actually paid. But at least four IOC members accepted vacations at Disney World in Florida, according to the documents.

The new disclosures come on the heels of the scandal surrounding Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Scholarships and jobs were given to children of IOC members as well as cash and real estate transactions that benefited IOC members.

Memos in the Atlanta files indicate virtually any detail about members of the IOC were meticulously recorded. One letter to an Atlanta official records the shoe sizes of IOC members and their families.

In one memo to Payne, another Atlanta official writes of an offer to an IOC member: "He clearly wants his daughter to come to the U.S. to college. ... I told him we had a scholarship for her at the University of Georgia."

Atlanta officials say that never came about.

One exchange indicates that an education offer was turned down. The IOC member wrote that his daughter "would love to do the MBA program at the famous Georgia Tech" but he worried the offer would be "misinterpreted."

For congressional investigators, the issue in all of this is how much was too much.

"What we've discovered so far I think any casual observer would find troubling," Upton said.

Atlanta-based law firm King and Spalding, which represents the Atlanta organizers, is sending its report to the House investigators next week. The report is an amended version of an earlier report.

Congressional investigators said the initial report was less than complete. Their concern was based partly on the fact the Atlanta organizers had not included seven boxes of documents they considered personal files.

Correspondent Aram Roston contributed to this report

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