Upper West Side Sports Agent Possibly Bribed Marathon Officials: Feds

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A Russian sports agent who lives on the Upper West Side is under federal investigation for possibly trying to bribe marathon officials in the United States, the New York Times reported.

The Department of Justice the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of New York all helped investigate the sports agent, Andrey Baranov, as part of a larger investigation of a state-sponsored Russian doping program, according to the report. Baranov was suspected of bribing officials at marquee running events in the United States into allowing athletes using banned substances to compete, the Times reported.

The agent, who lives in a prewar building between Broadway and West End Avenue, denied the allegations in an interview with the Times.

The Times report was published just days before the best runners in the world race in the New York City Marathon. New York City Marathon officials told the Times that nobody working for the marathon took any bribes.

>>> Read the full New York Times article here.

Photo: Martineric via Wikimedia Commons