Ticket Fraud: THG Sports Exec Arrested In Rio

Police arrested an Irish sports executive and another company employee, who was acting as interpreter, July 5, the opening day of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Photo: AP Photo / Felipe Dana, File

Tickets to the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro recently became available for the cheap as organizers opened up the local ticketing site to the public.

Kevin James Mallon, of British ticketing and hospitality firm THG, and his interpreter were accused of criminal conspiracy and ticket touting. Local police found fake tickets on them. Both are alleged to have sold overpriced tickets for the opening ceremony. Every participating nation is allocated a certain amount of tickets to sell. The two suspects were in possession of tickets allocated to Ireland.

According to The Guardian, “The Olympic Council of Ireland has denied any knowledge of alleged touting after its name was pictured on tickets seized by police.”

While THG got the Irish allocation for the London 2012 Olympics, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympics, it is understood that the company was not selected as the authorized ticket seller for the 2016 games.

According to insidethegames.biz this year’s seller of Irish tickets is Pro10 Sports Management. According to the sports news site, authorities said “opening ceremony tickets were being sold for as much as $8,000,” and more than 1,000 tickets were found with the couple.

Rio Police stated that THG were also involved in an alleged ticket-scalping scheme during the 2014 World Cup, which is what prompted authorities to ramp up their efforts to crack down on touts.