Artist’s render of the BMX biking track, one of nine venues at the Deodoro Olympic cluster (www.rio2016.com)
Brazilian police have swooped on construction companies building part of the 2016 Olympics site in Rio de Janeiro.
It marks an escalation of the federal police investigation into suspected corruption in the construction of the Games’ venues.
The police said search warrants were used for the raid on the headquarters of the consortium responsible for building the Deodoro Sports Complex (pictured), which will host 11 events when the Olympics take place in August. The consortium comprises privately-owned Brazilian construction firms OAS SA and Queiroz Galvao.
Additional searches were carried out at two unnamed companies which have provided services to the Deodoro consortium, and at another accused of making counterfeit waste disposal claims.
The police said they seized “a large amount of documents, desktop computers, laptops and mobile devices”.
In March, CM‘s sister site Global Construction News reported that a federal court had blocked further payments to the consortium building the Deodoro Sports Complex, after suspicions of fraud emerged in the earthmoving contract.
The federal police investigations into the suspected corruption began in January 2016, and there have been 39 hearings to date. The police said their investigations would continue.
The Rio Games are due to start on 5 August. The Deodoro complex will host 11 events including BMX, shooting, equestrian and pentathlon.
