Aide to Welch details Oly gifts

Tom Welch's longtime secretary spent nearly five hours on the stand Monday detailing the cash, gifts and trips she arranged for International Olympic Committee members under orders from her "very charismatic and persuasive" boss.

The secretary, Stephanie Pate, is the government's first witness in its fraud, conspiracy and racketeering case against Welch and Dave Johnson. The Salt Lake Olympic bid leaders are on trial in connection with the more than $1 million spent to influence the IOC.

Pate, whose testimony will continue today, said Welch, the president of the bid, was "very busy. He delegated well. He was able to get a lot done out of a lot of people. He was very charismatic and persuasive."

Asked by prosecutor Richard Wiedis to explain, she offered what she described as a personal example. "He had me get a dog for an IOC member. I thought that was a funny thing for us to be getting," Pate said. "I just did it."

But objections from the defense prevented Wiedis from trying to get Pate to tell the jury whether Welch ever intimidated people or had ever asked her to do anything wrong.

The golden retriever, valued at more than $1,000 and purchased for Agustin Arroyo of Ecuador, who lost his IOC membership in the scandal, was just one of the perks brought up during the government's questioning of Pate.

Wiedis flashed image after image of checks, payment vouchers and trip itineraries on the giant screen set up in the federal courthouse on Main Street, including a nearly $1,500 shopping spree at Nordstrom and a meal at La Caille that cost more than $600.

The trips described to jurors included jaunts to Paris, New York and Montreal for Jean Claude Ganga of the Congo Republic and his family, costing between $4,000 and more than $10,000. Pate said Ganga also had several bank accounts set up for him in Utah.

Wiedis also showed jurors a copy of a $5,000 reimbursement check endorsed by Welch that, according to Pate's testimony, was repayment for a personal check to an IOC member that was never cashed.

Welch had written a personal check to IOC member Anton Geesink of the Netherlands because he could not attend a kickoff event for Geesink's foundation, Pate said. But the foundation held the check for about a year before trying to cash it, she said.

When Welch's bank called to see if that was acceptable given that the check was about to expire, Pate said she asked her boss. "He told me no," Pate testified. "I told West One Bank to tell the Anton Geesink Foundation no."