Collin Greenland, Contributor

THE HISTORY of the Olympics has been dominated by the feats of its innumerable champions from the first record-winning runner, a naked cook from Elis named Coroebus in 776 BC, who won the Stade, (the sole event - a run of approximately 192 metres or 210 yards), to Usain Bolt, a precocious sprinter out of Trelawny, Jamaica, who gleefully dances the 'Nuh Linga' in celebration after decimating all comers in the epic 100 metres at the 2008 Games.

Like so many other aspects of human endeavour, however, the sensational Olympics has been fraught with ugly accompaniments, such as cheating and bribery in the early years, to the plethora of white-collar crimes, such as money laundering, identity theft, credit-card fraud, cyber fraud, mail-order fraud, telephone-order fraud, travel fraud, application fraud, intellectual property/copyright fraud, economic extortion, bribery, embezzlement, wire fraud, counterfeiting, ticket/ armband fraud and vendor fraud - just to name some!

Fraud and bribery

Fraud and bribery dominated the misdeeds perpetrated by the ancient Olympians and written records list the main offenders as Gelo of Syracuse, Lichas of Sparta, Eupolus of Thessaly, Dionysius of Syracuse, Ephesus and Sotades of Crete, the Hellanodikai (judges from Elis), Callippus of Athens, Eudelus and Philostratus of Rhodes, Sosander of Smyrna, and Didas and Sarapammon from the Arsinoite Nome. Although the modern-day cheats are known more for taking banned substances to compete unfairly against others, some have also have opted for the other technologically savvy and more lucrative white-collar crimes mentioned above, and include famous Olympians such as Steve Riddick, Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones.

Tim Montgomery is more known for losing his world record and reputation as the world's fastest man because of the BALCO Laboratory-related scandal. His current sentence of almost four years in Federal prison, however, was for a cheque-fraud scheme in which prosecutors said he planned to deposit five million dollars in stolen, altered, or counterfeit cheques over three years in several banks.

Steve Riddick, Montgomery's coach and himself an Olympic gold-medal sprinter, was also found guilty of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, less than the period recommended by sentencing guidelines.

Marion Jones may have avoided prison if her only crime was the use of banned substance. However, despite her plea for leniency, in sentencing her, Federal Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the maximum sentence, stating that the cheque-fraud scheme and lying to Federal authorities were major crimes.

Like the Hellanodikai, who were citizens of Elis serving as judges in ancient days, modern-day officials have also been accused of sporting skullduggery, and include organisers of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, and even the Chinese government, host of the current spectacle in Beijing. For example, the two former leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson of the Salt Lake City Olympic Bid, earlier this month pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of bribery, conspiracy and fraud, when they appeared in a Utah court in connection with an alleged one-million dollar 'cash-for-votes' scandal.

More recently, critics have contended that the Chinese government has carried out shameful acts of fraud in their all-out attempts to impress the world of its organisational and sporting prowess. The allegations include lip-synching, video/fireworks fraud, and rigging the ages of their female gymnasts. White-collar crime experts, however, are more concerned about other Olympic scams of more far-reaching consequences.

For example, this Bejing Olympics has been plagued with fraudulent websites which have swindled online purchasers of tickets throughout the world, and in Australia alone, 33 victims were reported as losing $96,900 on a US-based website bejingticketing.com before authorities were able to shut it down. This professional-looking site illegally carried the official Beijing Games logo, provided a London phone number and a US address in Phoenix, Arizona, and boasted offices in Sydney, London and New York. In addition to Australia, victims who suffered from this fake site also originated from New Zealand, The United States, Japan, Norway, China, and Britain, according to the IOC and the media.

Hackers target Olympics

Not to be left behind, hackers have busily targeted the Olympics this summer. SCMagazineUS.com has reported that hackers have hit various news sites using SQL injection attacks to infect websites with updates on the Olympics. Sophos, a security-software company, also wrote that the SQL injection attack was designed to install malware on to users' computers and explained that the attack drags malware from a third-party Russian site turning personal computers into bots.

Since the opportunities for fraud increase astronomically during the Olympics, the IOC, host countries, athletes, officials, media, merchants and the public at large, therefore, must employ effective deterrence and prevention strategies, then share information widely on the problems identified (actual or potential) and implement the best practices that provide tried and proven solutions. Before the Sydney Olympics, for example, an Olympic fraud-awareness conference was hosted by the Australian credit-card industry in conjunction with the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators and various other related organisations. Delegates were able to sharpen their knowledge of fraud, its resultant economic losses and how to deter, prevent and detect such offences.

Before the Atlanta Olympics, it was estimated that telephone fraud was a 12-billion-dollar problem for the telecommunications industry worldwide and in the US alone, the industrywide loss was estimated at 3.6 billion dollars due to fraudulent activities such as call-sell operations, PBX, calling cards and phone-subscriptions, according to Alliance to Outfox Phone Fraud, an industry consortium.

Collin Greenland is a forensic accountant who can be contacted at cgreeny.collin@gmail.com.