Town owner Marcus Evans’s THG Group have denied claims that tickets found in the hotel room of one of their executives are part of a touting scam.
As reported earlier in the week, Brazilian police seized more than 1,000 tickets - bearing the name of the Olympic Council of Ireland - and detained Kevin James Mallon.
According to the Mail on Sunday, Ricardo Barboza de Souza, of the Rio civil police, suspects Evans of being behind the organised selling of tickets at significantly more than their face value and is investigating the Town owner for offences relating to touting and conspiracy.
Lawyers for Evans have denied any involvement in such activities by either the 52-year-old or any of his companies, while Pro 10, the authorised ticket reseller for the Olympic Council of Ireland, confirmed in a statement that the tickets Mallon had "in his possession were held on our behalf to be made available simply for collection by Irish and other European customers of Pro 10 in Rio”.
In a statement of their own the Marcus Evans Group and THG said: "The very strong statement issued yesterday by Pro 10, the authorised ticket reseller for Ireland, clearly set out the correct factual position.
"They confirmed that the tickets with the THG representative in Rio, Kevin Mallon, were authorised tickets held on behalf of their clients and were not being sold by THG. Mr Mallon was acting as the collection point for their clients only.
"There is no question of touting on the part of THG or any deception of any people that bought tickets through the authorised ticket reseller process.
"The tickets made available by Pro 10 to its clients were at face value plus the allowed allowance only. Tickets have never been sold illegally and we have no knowledge of tickets ever having been voided.
"THG have been advised by their local lawyer that there is no evidence to support any charges and the investigation has produced no elements linking any executives of THG to the allegations made.”
Pro 10’s statement continued: "We have suffered significant commercial loss as a result of the tickets being seized by ROCOG [Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games] and caused Irish and European customers to be unable to buy tickets during Games time through the authorised process.
"Pro 10 is now discussing this matter with our lawyers and we wish to make no further comment on this matter which could prejudice our case.”