Joseph Cassar, secretary of the Malta Olympic Committee, has rebutted accusations that he tarnished the reputation of the Olympic movement.
In a statement circulated by his lawyers Edward Zammit Lewis and Adrian Camilleri, he denied ever giving any information on how to circumvent official procedures for the sale of tickets for the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Mr Cassar was the second senior Maltese official rapped by the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee after a probe on ticket selling.
The other was MOC president Judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, who also denied any wrongdoing.
The MOC executive met in an urgent session last night to discuss developments embroiling the organisation’s top officials, but the outcome was unknown by the time of going to print.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee said it expected national organisations to take appropriate action to reprimand officials.
The IOC investigation was launched after a probe by undercover reporters of The Sunday Times of London, who secretly filmed Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco and Mr Cassar while posing as agents seeking to buy tickets allocated to Malta for the 2014 winter games.
The IOC report singled out six officials in four countries: Malta, Greece, Lithuania and Serbia.
The IOC commission said that explaining “which means could be used to get around the mechanism”, helped prove the journalists’ point that the sports world and those who work for it were “prepared to violate the rules”.
But Mr Cassar “strongly denied” any wrongdoing and insisted he never knew that the undercover journalists did not have good intentions.
The lawyers said he went to the meeting on the premise that the interlocutors wanted to discuss becoming authorised ticket resellers (ATRs).
“The representatives gave our client false names, cards and made reference to a false webpage (that was actually found online), which seemed to be regular,” the lawyers said.
They insisted their client “never asked for any funds” or negotiated ticket prices. The undercover journalists were ready to pay £60,000 to act as official ATRs, they added.
In Mr Cassar’s defence, the lawyers quoted an e-mail he sent the interlocutors with the contracts, in which he asked to be told the ultimate investor. The quoted section said: “Please understand dealing with the IOC is a very serious and important thing and we surely cannot afford to be associated with an unknown to us.”
The lawyers said this showed Mr Cassar’s intentions were always lawful and “in no way did he want to bypass any rules”.