By Crispian Balmer and Ken Wills
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it was
taking action to shut down the fraudsters, but the move came
too late to help the victims find replacement seats at the
Games.
Among those left out of pocket were the families of Olympic
athletes in both Australia and New Zealand, with people in the
United States, Japan, Norway, China and Britain also reportedly
conned by the sophisticated sting.
"We cannot accept people paying money for tickets and not
getting them," said Gerhard Heiberg, an IOC executive board
member.
Heiberg said the issue was raised last week, with both the
IOC and the United States Olympic Committee filing a lawsuit on
Friday in a district court in California, accusing at least six
websites of selling illegitimate or nonexistent tickets.
However, a U.S. lawyer who said he had lost $12,000 in the
fraud, accused the IOC of complacency.
"They have known about these sites for months and months
and did nothing," said Jim Moriarty, the partner of a
Houston-based law firm which is looking to represent fellow
victims in any subsequent legal actions.
"They have dashed the hopes and dreams of thousands of
people who have been planning for years to go the Games, and
have already paid thousands of dollars for airfare and what
they thought were legitimate tickets," he told Reuters.
STILL UP AND RUNNING
The professional-looking site, which carries the official
Beijing Games logo, provides a London phone number, which rang
dead on Monday, and a U.S. address in Phoenix, Arizona.
Australia's Olympic Committee (AOC) offered commiserations
but no solutions to the scores of Australians left out of
pocket.
"Our sympathy goes to them ... but we certainly aren't in a
position to step in, compensate or find other tickets," AOC
chief John Coates said on Monday.
"We warned folk to only deal with authorized ticket
suppliers," he told a news conference.
The press reported that some Australian nationals had been
swindled out of almost $45,000. Moriarty said one unnamed
individual had lost $57,000.
"The worst thing is that some people don't even know yet
that they bought tickets that won't arrive," he said.
"Some were told they could pick up the tickets at an office
in Beijing, and they won't be there. My guess is they sold
thousands of tickets that don't exist."
(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to
Beijing" at http://www.reuters/news/sports/2008olympics;
and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters/china)
0 comments:
Post a Comment