In an ongoing investigation by French authorities, Lamine Diack’s son is also believed to have played a “very active” role in the alleged “system of corruption,” which involved blackmailing athletes in a doping cover-up scheme.

 

According to an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, France’s national financial prosecutor Eliane Houlette said that Diack pocketed “more than 1 million euros” from the alleged blackmailing scheme which demanded money from athletes to cover up suspected doping. 

 

According to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s findings, which prompted the investigation, at least one of Diack’s sons approached Turkish Olympian Asli Cakir Alptekin a few months after she won gold in the 1500m at the London Olympics. According to WADA’s findings, he suggested she could pay to hide a positive doping test. 

 

Houlette said that she refused and as a result was banned for eight years. In August, it was announced that Cakir would forfeit all of her results from the 2010-2012 seasons, which included Olympic gold and the 2012 European Championship title. During the 2012 season, Alptekin lowered her 1500m personal best by almost nine seconds. 

 

It hasn’t been determined if the elder Diack was an active organizer in the blackmailing, but Houlette said his son, Papa Massata Diack, an IAAF marketing consultant is thought to have played a “very active” role in the corrupt practices.  

 

“It’s a form of blackmail when you say to someone: ‘Pay or you can’t compete,” Houlette told AP. “I don’t know if we can call it a mafia system but it is a system of corruption. It’s extremely serious.”

This would not be the first time Papa Massata Diack has been accused of inpropriety. Last December, The Guardian reported that he requested a $5 million payment, including $440,000 in cash, from Qatari officials in 2011 during Doha's failed bid to host the 2017 World Championships. The Persian Gulf state is slated to host the championships in 2019.

 

The elder Diack, his legal advisor Habib Cisse and IAAF anti-doping organizer Gabrielle Dolle were taken into police custody last Sunday and charged with corruption and money laundering.  

 

“We didn’t arrest Mt. Diack’s son because he didn’t come to Paris when he was meant to. But he is also implicated in this affair,” Houlette told AP. “We haven’t had the opportunity to arrest him in France. We would have done so if we could.”