Former IAAF President Lamine Diack has been arrested and placed under criminal investigation on corruption and money-laundering charges, according to The Associated Press. 

 

Diack is suspected of taking over $1 million in bribes from Russia to cover up positive doping tests, French authorities told AP on Wednesday. Diack, along with several other IAAF officials, are suspected of taking money in 2011 to allow at least six Russian athletes to continue competing. Some of those athletes were allowed to compete at the 2012 London Olympics. 

Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux, assistant prosecutor at the French office told AP, "They decided not to act and now we understand why. It was in exchange for money."

 

Habib Cisse, Diack’s legal advisor was placed under investigation by judges based on evidence provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Gabriel Dolle, who was the director of the IAAF’s anti-doping department, has also been taken into custody in the south of France. 

Both Diack and Cisse were taken into custody on Sunday and remained there until Tuesday when they were released on $550,000 bail. 
 

“The IAAF confirms that, emanating from separate ongoing investigations by WADA’s independent commission and the IAAF’s own independent Ethics Commission into allegations surrounding its anti-doping rules and regulations, a French police investigation has now commenced,” the IAAF released in a statement. 

 

Diack is being charged under formal investigation on corruption and aggravated money-laundering charges while Cisse only faces the corruption charge. 

 

The 82-year-old former president stepped down from his post in August after working as the IAAF president for 16 years. French authorities also visited the IAAF headquarters in Monaco on Tuesday to "carry out interviews and to access documentation." 

 

The IAAF said that it is “fully cooperating with all investigations as it has been from the beginning of the process.”

 

Diack’s successor, Sebastian Coe volunteered for questioning at the IAAF headquarters as well. Coe won the IAAF election against Sergey Bubka in August at the World Championships in Beijing. 

 

The investigation began when WADA first approached French prosecutors in August with evidence of wrong-doing, according to The Associated Press who was told by a senior official at the prosecutor’s office. 

 

The official told The Associated Press that Diack is suspected of accepting $1 million dollars to cover up positive doping tests. The prosecutors suspect the money came from the Russian athletics association. 
 

The Russian athletics association has been under heavy scrutiny since the release of the German documentary, “Secret Doping Dossier: How Russia Produces its Winners,” as well as the newly released documentary that analyzes a secret IAAF database of 12,000 blood tests taken by 5,000 athletes from 2001-2012. The documentary suggests that as many as 800 athletes in distance events ranging from 800m to the marathon have blood values which violate the WADA definition of a biological passport. 

 

The documentary also notes that the IAAF has had an average annual income of $58 million of the last four years, while spending an average of $2.5 million per year on anti-doping. A portion of the documentary focuses on the doping scandal within the Russian Athletics Federation, which was revealed in last year’s German documentary. The documentary suggests that 2012 Olympic 800m Champion Mariya Savinova and three-time Chicago Marathon Champion Liliya Shobukhoba are just a few athletes that are said to have tested positive and covered up by the RUSADA.