MANNHEIM (Germany), July 18: A court here Wednesday launched an 840,000 euros (847,000 dollar) fraud inquiry into Thomas Bach, vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper reported.

The 1976 Montreal Games fencing gold medallist is under investigation for concealing that amount from the German tax authorities over a four year spell from 1995, the paper claimed.

The affair, the report said, is linked to gifts made by the German car giant Mercedes-Benz to a fencing club in the town of Tauberbischofsheim which Bach was a director of for a 20 year period. Bach went public Wednesday night to strongly deny any wrongdoing.

“I absolutely do not understand how my name could be linked to an affair about cars with the Tauberbischofsheim club,” he said.—AFP