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2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Photo: Agência Brasil/Wikimedia Commons)
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2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (Photo: Agência Brasil/Wikimedia Commons)
Dutch man implicated in Olympics ticket-fraud
A Dutch man is one of four suspects against whom a Brazilian judge issued an international arrest warrant on Monday. The four work at a company suspected of committing fraud in the sale of tickets for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, ANP reports.
According to the Brazilian police, the four men are outside Brazil. This is why an international arrest warrant was issued. The Brazilian authorities also got international police organization Interpol involved, the Volkskrant reports.
Reuters reports that the suspects work for THG Sports. This company sold more than a thousand tickets for the Rio Olympics at well above the normal price. They got the tickets from company PRO10, who got it from the Irish Olympic Committee. The tickets were seized by the Brazilian police.
THG Sports denies the accusations, insisting that they had permission to have and sell the tickets. PRO10 also insists that there was no wrong doing. "The tickets were made available on our behalf for collection to our Irish and European customers in Rio", the Irish company said last week.
THG Sports thinks the local authorities have a hidden agenda, according to the Volkskrant. The company believes that they are not under investigation because of illegal activities, but because the Brazilian authorities want to give local ticket sellers a boost.