Pat Hickey has stepped aside from his role as president of the Olympic Council of Ireland

Tickets seized by Rio police, inset right Pat Hickey, inset far right Marcus Evans

Police have released emails which allegedly show that Pat Hickey offered tickets to Marcus Evans for the opening and closing ceremonies of Rio 2016.

At a press conference in Rio on Tuesday evening, the officers revealed that mails between THG's Evans and Mr Hickey went back to 2010.

Officers said the pair were in contact over the detention of THG's finance director, Kevin Mallon, in Rio on August 5 of this year.

And in another email, shown to the press, Mr Hickey allegedly told Mr Evans that he can use all of the OCI's allocation of tickets for two key events.

Mr Hickey, who temporarily stepped down as OCI president after his arrest last week, wrote: “Thank you. I can confirm to you now that I do not require any of the opening or the closing ceremony tickets that was part of our NOC allocation. You can use them all."

He also said: “We have tickets left that Pro 10 don't want so before we get rid of them have you any use for them.”

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THG had applied to be the Authorised Ticket Reseller (ATR) for the OCI for Rio 2016 but this was rejected by organisers.

Fraud officers allege that Irish company PRO10 was created to act as a bridge between OCI and THG after this.

Investigator Aloysio Falcao also displayed an email, taken from Mr Hickey's computer, from 2010 which shows contact between the pair dated back to then.

At a police conference in Rio last night officers also confirmed that an OCI member who had his passport seized has been told he is free to return home after meeting with officers, while his colleagues have rescheduled their meeting for tomorrow (Thurs).

General Secretary Dermot Henihan met with officers in 'Police City' and a short time later senior officers confirmed that he had no role in an alleged international ticket touting ring.

Chef de Mission Kevin Kilty and CEO Stephen Martin were also due to meet with police but the pair have rescheduled their meeting for tomorrow.

Speaking at a police conference Ricardo Barboza de Sousa said Mr Henihan's role was “only bureaucratic”.

Commissioenr Barboza said: “Today Stephen Martin and Kevin Kilty asked to reschedule to Thursday to allow them meet with lawyers

“Henihan said he signed the document for bureaucratic reasons. His involvenment has been excluded.

“For us there is no link in terms of the content of material we have. His role was bureaucratic only.

”There was no decision power behind this.”

Commissioner Barboza said the two other executives remain suspects until their meeting on Thursday.

Police also confirmed that they are investigating a major money-laundering operation to establish the financial link between those involved in the alleged crime.

Police officer Aloysio Falcao explained: “For the investigation It is very important for police to look at the money laundering aspect of the investigation.

“Our unit takes care of money laundering. We will be forwarding all these documents to show that there is a huge markup between the face value and the price they were being sold for.”

Police secured a warrant to seize the passports of six OCI executives following interviews with Pat Hickey in the last week.

Police sources have confirmed that they sought to interview Mr Henihan, Mr Kilty and Mr Martin to establish what they know about an alleged ticket touting ring.

Police are seeking to establish if the decision to grant the ticketing licence for Rio 2016 first to THG and secondly to PRO10 was mutual or made independently by Mr Hickey.

According to court records Mr Hickey has claimed it was a collective decision.

"Pat Hickey says he wasn't alone when making a decision. He says he was in a group with these six people.

"He mentioned the three people who come here today and he mentions three others. They were not in the country so police could not speak with them."

Warrants were also issued for the seizure of passports belonging to temporary OCI president Willie O'Brien, Vice President John Delaney who is also FAI CEO and Mr Hickey's Personal Assistant Linda O'Reilly.

Online Editors