Vinokourov charged with corruption
20th August 2014
It has been announced that Alexander Vinokourov was charged with corruption in May this year, together with Aleksander Kolobnev. The information was kept secret until now.
The Belgian newspaper Sudinfo reports that Vinokourov is suspected of having bought his win in the 2010 Liege-Bastogne-Liege spring classic, for €150,000. The affair is being investigated by a prosecutor, a procedure which is likely to take another few months.
The allegation is that when Vinokourov and Kolobnev were alone together in the lead, a few kilometres from the finish of the race, Vinokourov offered the Russian €150,000 to let him win. The investigators have evidence of two payments, one of €100,000 and the other of €50,000, from Vinkourov's Monaco bank account to Kolobnev's Swiss bank account.
In a further twist, Vinokourov received a payment of €150,000 from the Kazakh cycle federation, which the federation said was given to the best Kazakh rider of the year 2010, a prize which had not previously existed.
Vinokourov has previously said that he lent the money to Kolobnev, and the loan was unrelated to the 2010 Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Vinokourov is general manager of Astana, the team of the 2014 Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali.