The International Olympic Committee has suspended the head of the Rio Games after his arrest on bribery and fraud charges linked to a bid vote-buying scandal, which he denies.

Carlos Nuzman, 75, was involved in a commission organising the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but has been removed from the role after Brazilian police accused him of involvement in alleged bribery of IOC members to vote for the Rio Games during campaigning in 2009. Because he is president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee that body has also been suspended, meaning any IOC payments are frozen and its right to vote on Olympic-related matters is revoked.

Brazilian police revealed 16 solid gold bars weighing 1kg each were found in a depository in Geneva and alleged they were among Nuzman’s hidden assets. They also claimed the value of his estate had increased by 457% over a decade as head of the country’s Olympic association and have requested legal assistance from the Switzerland attorney general as they build their case.

Nuzman is accused of acting as a middleman between Brazilian businessman Arthur César de Menezes Soares Filho, nicknamed King Arthur, and Lamine Diack, the disgraced former president of international athletics. Soares allegedly paid £1.2m into company accounts controlled by Diack’s son Papa Massata Diack in order to sway a band of African IOC voters.

The IOC has been criticised for not acting sooner but said Nuzman was only temporarily suspended pending further investigation. “This decision shall not affect the Brazilian athletes,” an IOC spokesman said. “The IOC will accept a Brazilian Olympic Team in the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and in all other competitions under the umbrella of the Brazilian Olympic Committee with all rights and obligations.”