Swimmer to pay $11000 to charity to settle gunpoint robbery dispute claims

U.S. Olympic swimmer Jimmy Feigen will pay $11,000 to a Brazilian charity to settle a dispute over what police called a fabricated story about him and his teammates being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio games, ABC News reported on Friday.

The announcement was made by Feigen's attorney, Breno Melaragno Costa, after meeting a judge and officials from the prosecuting ministry in Rio for hours, ABC News reported.

Feigen was among four U.S. swimmers shown to have lied about being stopped by gunmen posing as police in the early hours of Sunday. The U.S. Olympic Committee issued an apology over the incident.

2 US swimmers pulled off plane in robbery case

Brazilian police stopped three US Olympic swimmers from boarding a flight home on Wednesday to question them about inconsistencies in their accounts of being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro, police sources said.

Federal police also want to question gold medallist Ryan Locke, but he had already returned to the United States.

A Brazilian judge ordered police on Wednesday to seize the passports of Lochte and fellow gold medallist James Feigen so they could be questioned over their description of the robbery, which took place in the early hours of Sunday morning and also involved team mates Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger.

Lochte, 32, one of swimming's most decorated Olympians, had flown home already on Monday, a police spokesman said. The other three men were stopped by police at Rio's international airport on Wednesday evening, one police source said.

A spokesman for the US Olympic Committee (USOC) confirmed that Bentz and Conger were pulled from their flight.

"We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities," said Patrick Sandusky, USOC spokesperson.

"We are gathering further information."

The police source said Feigen had been detained by police before he boarded the plane and was then taken for questioning along with the other two. There are no charges facing the three men, the source said.

Doubts

Brazilian police said on Wednesday Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ryan Lochte had returned to the United States before a judge's order to stop him but they were searching for his team mate amid doubts over their account of being robbed at gunpoint in Rio.

Judge Keyla Blanc, of Brazil's Special Tribunal for Fans and Major Events, ordered police on Wednesday to seize the passports of Lochte and fellow gold medallist James Feigen so they could be questioned over inconsistencies in their descriptions of the robbery at the weekend.

Police discovered after checks at Rio's international airport that Lochte, 32, had already left Brazil, where he won a relay gold medal in the Olympic swimming competition that ended on Saturday.

Lochte left for the United States on Monday aboard a commercial flight before the judge's order was issued, a spokesman for federal police said. Feigen was still in Rio de Janeiro, the spokesman said.

The San Antonio Express-News quoted Feigen as saying by telephone that he was in Brazil but declining further comment.

People magazine reported that Lochte, one of swimming's most decorated Olympians, was spotted at an airport in North Carolina on Wednesday with his girlfriend Kayla Rae Reid, a Playboy model. It was not immediately possible to confirm this.

Lochte's attorney did not return calls for comment.

A U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) spokesman said police had arrived at the Athletes' Village on Wednesday and asked to meet the swimmers and collect their passports.

"The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available," said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky, who could not confirm the swimmers' location for security reasons.

"We will continue to cooperate with Brazilian authorities."

A spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Rio declined to answer specific questions on the case but said parties should work with Brazilian law enforcement in the investigation.

Judicial sources said the judge would consider whether to ask Lochte to return to Brazil to give testimony or allow him to do so in the United States.

Court order

The court order was the latest twist in a story of a supposedly terrifying, high-profile incident that embarrassed Olympic authorities and ramped up the fear factor for hundreds of thousands of tourists in Rio at South America's first Olympics.

Now, Brazilian officials are suggesting that the US swimmers may not have told the whole truth - and need to answer questions.

Judge Keyla Blank "issued warrants for searches and the seizure of the passports for the US swimmers," a statement from her office said. "With this, they are banned from leaving the country."

The likelihood of the swimmers actually facing Brazilian police was uncertain.

Police issued a statement saying they'd gone to the Olympic athletes' Village, but the "athletes concerned were not found."

US media reported that Lochte's lawyer said the gold medal-winning swimmer was already back in the United States. Feigen's movements were not clear.

The US Olympic Committee refused to comment on the athletes' whereabouts but confirmed that Brazilian police were looking for the swimmers.

"The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available," spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.

"Additionally, as part of our standard security protocol, we do not make athlete travel plans public and therefore cannot confirm the athletes' current location."

Sandusky said the US team would "continue to cooperate with Brazilian authorities."

Did the mugging happen?

Lochte says that he and three team-mates were held up by muggers posing as police as they left a late night party in central Rio.

Reports of the incident were immediately plunged into confusion when the International Olympic Committee denied that anything had happened.

Lochte, however, gave interviews describing the supposed robbery in detail and Brazilian Olympic authorities later issued a public apology.

With some 85,000 police and soldiers guarding the Olympics - twice the number used in London - security has been a major issue in Rio.

In addition to multiple incidents of thefts from Olympic athletes or media, a Portuguese government minister was mugged in the swish Leblon district.

Lochte said he had a gun put to his forehead in the robbery, when the swimmers' taxi was pulled over by criminals who forced them to lie on the ground and stole money and other items.

"The guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, 'Get down,'" Lochte said afterward.

"He took our money, he took my wallet - he left my cell phone, he left my credentials."

However, Olympic officials have said police are still looking for key witnesses, including the driver of the cab the swimmers said they had been in.

Police on Wednesday yet again issued an appeal for the driver to contact them.

And Blank's office said the judge was probing "possible inconsistencies in the swimmers' stories".

These included different accounts of how many assailants there were.

Another point raising doubts over the swimmers' stories was their behaviour, caught on security cameras, as they returned to their hotel after the supposed robbery, the judge said.

"It's noticeable that the victims arrived back physically and mentally unshaken, even joking with each other," the judge said.

The video in question, posted on Britain's Daily Mail tabloid website, shows the four swimmers passing through an X-ray machine, taking what could be wallets or cellphones from their pockets.

At one moment Lochte playfully hits a team mate with his Olympic accreditation.

Otherwise, the clip shows little out of the ordinary.

 

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