Ukraine Olympic Committee expels official accused of offering to sell …
KYIV, Ukraine – A former top sports official was expelled from Ukraine’s Olympic Committee on Wednesday following allegations he offered to sell thousands of dollars worth of tickets for the London Games on the black market.
Volodymyr Gerashchenko resigned as secretary general of Ukraine’s national Olympic committee last month after he was accused in a BBC television report of telling an undercover reporter posing as an unauthorized dealer that he was willing to sell up to 100 tickets for cash.
But an internal investigation found Gerashchenko did not intend to sell the tickets to the reporter.
Olha Zhukovska, who was part of the investigation, claimed Wednesday that Gerashchenko met with the reporter only after he became tired of being bombarded by phone calls and did not take the conversation seriously.
“We didn’t find evidence of an intent to sell the tickets,” Zhukovska said, according to the Interfax news agency.
However, Gerashchenko was still permanently expelled from the committee for discussing ticket sales, which he was not authorized to do, and doing so while drunk.
“He didn’t regard that conversation as a serious one and he went there while intoxicated with alcohol,” Zhukovska said.
Zhukovska did not elaborate and an Olympic Committee spokesman could not be reached for comment.