Lamine Diack, the former head of world athletics, has been placed under formal investigation in France on suspicion of corruption and money laundering following a complaint from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The inquiry, confirmed by the French financial prosecutor's office on Wednesday, comes at a time when the image of world sport's governing bodies is under serious scrutiny. There is a large-scale corruption investigation at soccer's FIFA while athletics is fighting a desperate public relations rearguard battle in the face of continual doping issues.
According to French news channel iTELE, the investigation is focused on suspicions that payments were made in return for not revealing widespread doping of Russian athletes.