Brazil busts Irish Olympic ticket fraudster
Brazilian police said Monday they arrested an Irishman for scalping Olympics tickets at exorbitant prices, as well as 10 Brazilians who were reselling tickets purchased through credit card fraud.
Irish national Kevin James Mallon was described as a director at British firm THG, which already faced similar accusations during the 2014 World Cup.
He was arrested along with an interpreter at a Rio de Janeiro hotel as he sold tickets to around 20 buyers on Friday, the day of the opening ceremony, police said in a statement.
Police seized 781 tickets being sold at "extremely high prices."
THG was offering tickets for the opening ceremony for $8,000, for example, when the highest official ticket price was $1,300, inspector Ricardo Barbosa told a press conference.
The tickets on offer included sought-after events such as the football finals.
"These tickets can have enormous value. With this income the company could have made 10 million reals," or $3.15 million, said Barbosa.
THG was the official ticketing agent for the London Olympics in 2012. But it was not authorized to sell tickets for the Rio Games.
Brazilian news site G1 reported the company had bought its tickets from another, authorized seller.
It is THG's second brush with the law in Brazil.
During the 2014 World Cup, its manager, James Sinton, was arrested at a Rio hotel on charges of illegally reselling tickets through VIP packages.
The Briton paid a fine and promptly left the country.
In a second sweep, police said they also arrested 10 Brazilians who had cloned credit cards to buy tickets through the Rio 2016 website, then resold them at a steep discount.
Most were arrested just before the opening ceremony outside the Maracana stadium, commissioner Hilton Alonso told reporters.
Another 40 illegal ticket sellers were arrested Sunday outside the Olympic Park, an organizing committee official told news site GloboEsporte.