Police search Turin Games committee offices

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s financial police have searched
the offices of Turin’s Olympic committee as part of a probe
into consultancy contracts less than a month before the Games
start, sources close to the investigation said on Friday.

Turin prosecutors are probing contracts that the organizing
committee TOROC has signed with consultants on different
projects, the sources said.

Police had no immediate comment and the TOROC declined to
comment.

Organizers of the Games, which will run from February 10 to
26, have faced a series of cash crises over the past year or
so, prompting several visits by the financial police.

They are due to approve a rejigged budget on Monday to
overcome the latest shortfall in funds. Friday’s searches did
not seem related to the budget question.

The sources said no-one had been placed under
investigation, and prosecutors had not defined what kind of
crimes they were looking for. The sources said the probe
examined whether the contracts were regular.

Financial police have also gone to the offices of 10 people
and companies in different cities in Italy that acted as
consultants, confiscating contracts, the sources added.

More than a year ago, financial police carried out several
searches of TOROC’s offices, seizing documents after a
shortfall in sponsorship funds left a multi-million euro hole
in the Olympic budget.

TOROC has had to rework its budget again over the past few
weeks after the government cut public contributions. Its board
was due to approve the new accounts earlier this week, but
postponed the decision until next Monday to clarify some
details on how to fill the gap.