CALGARY, Alberta: A police investigation into possible fraud has delayed sales of tickets to the 1988 Winter Olympics here although 60,000 people have already placed orders, officials said,
Ticket manager Jim McGregor, who was said to be “under stresses, remains on a one month paid leave of absence while Calgary police investigate discrepancies in ticket ordering procedures.
Police superintendent Frank Mitchell told Reuters that four officers were working on the investigation, but he said he could not say when they would finish
“We are concerned about the integrity of the ticketing process, ‘but because of the magnitude of impact of this, we don’t want to rush (the investigators),” he said.
Calgary police are investigating why 8.000 ticket forms distributed in the United States by McGregor’s firm, World Tickets Inc., demanded payment in U.S. dollars only, while the Olympic Organising Committee is selling everything in Canadian funds.
At current exchange rates, one US. Dollar is worth one dollar and 38 cents in Canadian money.
Authorities said the World Ticket Forms carried a Calgary post office box address instead of the Organising committee address and climinated the space for payment by credit card, Credit card companies automatically calculate the exchange rate and bill the cardholder in his country’s currency.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 31, 1986
