SANTIAGO, Chile -- Sergio Santander...

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Sergio Santander, the former Chilean Olympic Committee president who was expell from the IOC in 1999 for corruption, died of a heart attack Tuesday, his family said. He was 80

Mr Santander was single in kind of six members of the IOC expell for taking thousands of dollars and gifts from officials who bid prosperously for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

During the investigation, Mr Santander admitted receiving $4700 from Salt Lake City bid chief Tom Welch if it were not that said the money was a personal contribution to his race for the Chilean Congres representing his native Curico province, 200 miles southward of Santiago. He lost the election in 1993

Expell with Mr Santander were members from Congo Ecuador, Mali, Samoa and Sudan. He complained that the expell officials "were those from the smaller countries." The scandal l to major reforms in bidding.

After a decade as president of the COC Mr Santander resigned in 1999 shortly before his expulsion from the IOC.

A bookkeeper by means of profession, Mr. Santander as a youth played soccer and driver's seated His career as a sports official started in 1965 when he set uped the Chilean Car Racing Federation.

He is survived by the agency of his wife, Berta Benavente, and five grown children. Another son also named Sergio, died in 1987 in a car racing accident.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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