KEY POINTS:
New Zealanders, Australians and other victims of the online Beijing Olympic ticket scam are suing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for "millions of dollars".
Texan class-action lawyer Jim Moriarty is representing 400 victims from around the globe. He also has his legal sights set on the London-based touts
allegedly behind the scam, the US Olympic Committee and the official US provider of tickets, JetSet/CoSport.
He expects to file the lawsuits in the next 30 to 60 days.
Mr Moriarty said it was unlikely he would go after the Australian Olympic Committee.
"I don't believe the Australian Olympic Committee or even the US Olympic Committee (USOC) are the ultimate bad guys here," he said. "The ultimate bad guys are the crooks in England and then the people that aided and facilitated their fraud and that clearly goes back directly to the IOC."
The straight-talking lawyer knows what it feels like to be a victim of the beijingticketing.com scam that fleeced 1730 sports fans and families of Olympic competitors out of an estimated US$3.5 million ($5.15 million). He was one of the victims.
The 62-year-old lawyer was duped out of US$12,000 after using his credit card on the bogus site to buy tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics and triathlon events.
Of the 400 victims Moriarty is representing, about 70 come from New Zealand and Australia.
The lawyer is expecting more to join the class action. One family lost US$120,000 in the scam.
The lawyer alleges the IOC was aware beijingticketing.com was operating with trademarked Olympic symbols emblazoned on the site, but failed to shut it down quickly enough.
"All the IOC or USOC would have had to have done is file a cybersquatting lawsuit and then generate some publicity over it and people would have realised that they were using the wrong sites."
In London this month, Mr Moriarty came face to face with Alan Scott, the director of Xclusive Leisure and Hospitality, the firm behind beijingticketing.com. Xclusive is being liquidated after failing to supply tickets or refunds to victims and Mr Moriarty and Mr Scott attended a liquidation meeting.
Mr Scott told the proceedings he was also a victim as Xclusive paid £2 million ($5.42 million) to a ticket supplier, but the supplier never came up with the tickets and vanished with the cash.
Mr Moriarty believes Mr Scott and his alleged accomplices should be prosecuted in the UK and the US.
"I believe they still have the money and we should go after them with a vengeance," Mr Moriarty said.
The lawyer said an official from America's Secret Service contacted him last week and it is believed the FBI has also launched an investigation.
"The American authorities have the ability to extradite criminals from England and put them in our penitentiaries," Mr Moriarty said. "There were hundreds and hundreds, something like 850, American families who were victimised by these scam artists and I absolutely hope they will do it."
Mr Moriarty said his lawsuits also would likely reveal why sports fans and the families of athletes were unable to secure tickets through the official Olympic ticket suppliers.
Many victims were told official ticket supplies were sold out despite plenty of vacant seats visible during the TV broadcast of the Olympics.
"Where did those tickets go?" Mr Moriarty asked. "Who profited from those tickets?"
- AAP
