Dentsu dissociates itself from Black Tidings amidst JOC corruption investigation

Japanese advertising giant Dentsu has disassociated itself from allegations that it endorsed Black Tidings, a Singapore-based marketing consultancy firm, to the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC). This comes as French judicial authorities investigate corruption claims concerning the bid for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.In a statement to Marketing, Dentsu's spokesperson clarified that Dentsu was contacted by the JOC for feedback on the consultancies that pitched."A number of consulting companies made pitches to the bidding committee after which the committee contacted Dentsu for any information we might have on those consultancies and we told the committee the extent of our knowledge of those consultancies," he said. The spokesperson added that Dentsu has no further comments as the matter is currently being investigated by French authorities.Black Tidings was founded in 2006 but terminated in 2014. It once again came under the spotlight in 2016, after French authorities began investigating a payment of approximately €1.3 million to the consultancy by the Tokyo 2020 bidding committee, as previously reported by The Guardian. The Guardian also reported that the Black Tidings account is linked to Papa Massata Diack, son of president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack who was a member of the International Olympic Committee and currently faces corruption charges.  Massata Diack also allegedly requested US$5 million from Qatar previously when it bidded for the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the 2020 Olympics, The Guardian said.Meanwhile according to multiple media reports including The Guardian, The Straits Times and TODAY, a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2016 also stated that the Black Tidings account is held by owner Ian Tan who also happened to be a consultant to Athlete Management and Services (AMS), a subsidiary of Dentsu Sports that markets commercial rights granted by the International Association of Athletics Federations.In 2014, the International Association of Athletics Federations and Dentsu Inc. extended its commercial partnership until the end of 2029, which sees the agency continuing as the worldwide commercial partner for the International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics Series. The rights include all marketing and licensing rights worldwide and all media rights worldwide outside of Europe and Africa. Coincidentally, the contract extension occurred when Lamine Diack was still the International Association of Athletics Federations chief.French judicial authorities charged JOC head Tsunekazu Takeda this month amidst investigations into payments made to Black Tidings amounting to US$2.3 million before and after Tokyo was selected to host the upcoming Games.While the payments were signed off by Takeda and labelled as "consultancy work", multiple media reports said French investigators believed they were intend to obtain "favourable votes" from members of the IOC. When questioned by French authorities on 10 December 2018, Takeda said he had no idea of the business relationship between Tan and Massata Diack at the time of payment. Neither did he have any knowledge of who Massata Diack was, nor did he play a part in choosing Black Tidings, stating that the firm was suggested by Dentsu.