October 2017 Arrest & Investigation

On 5 September 2017, a new initiative of the Car Wash operation, called, "Unfair Play", took place in Rio de Janeiro; Nuzman stands accused of bribing the International Olympic Committee to elect the city as the home of the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[6] One month later, Nuzman was arrested amid an investigation into a vote-buying scheme to bring the Olympics to Rio de Janeiro. As an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee, he was held for questioning in September 2017 by Brazilian and French authorities. They say he is a central figure in channeling $2 million to Lamine Diack, a former IOC member from Senegal who helped secure votes when Rio was picked by the IOC in 2009.^[7] After fifteen days of imprisonment, Nuzman's sentence was reduced to house arrest and probation, on the condition of delivering his passport, being restrained from both leaving Rio de Janeiro and accessing COB's facilities, and presenting himself regularly to justice.^[8] Nuzman's trial had former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and famed footballer Pelé among its witnesses.^[9]

November 2021 sentenced to 30 years

Judge Marcelo Bretas, from the 7th federal criminal court in Rio de Janeiro, sentenced the former president of the COB (Olympic Committee of Brazil), Carlos Arthur Nuzman to 30 years, 11 months and eight days in prison for the crimes of passive corruption, organization crime, money laundering and currency evasion.

The process is the result of the Unfair Play operation, which investigated the purchase of votes to choose Rio as the venue for the 2016 Olympics. Nuzman is still free to appeal the decision. His defense said the judge convicted him without evidence and that this will be corrected when the court hears the appeal.

It was the Federal Public Ministry that filed a complaint against the former president of the Olympic Committee of Brazil (COB) Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the former governor of Rio, Sérgio Cabral Filho, the businessman Arthur César de Menezes Soares Filho, the former director of operations of the Rio 2016 committee, Leonardo Gryner, Senegalese athletics leaders Lamine Diack and his son Papa Diack. As they reside in France and Senegal, the cases of foreign leaders were dismissed, as occurred with Reu Arthur, who also resides in the United States.