Tokyo 2020's Olympic preparations were drawn into a bribery scandal Thursday following a report in the U.K.'s Guardian newspaper that alleges a large payment was made by the games bid organization to an account linked to a disgraced former IOC member.

The newspaper reports French police are investigating a €1.3 million ($1.48 million) payment to the account of the son of Lamine Diack, a former high-ranking world athletics official and International Olympic Committee member between 1999 and 2013. Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013.

The suspicious payment was allegedly made to a Singaporean bank account named "Black Tidings," which is linked to Diack's son, Papa Massata Diack, who was employed by the International Association of Athletics Federations and was recently banned from the organization for life.