Locog, the organisers of the London Olympics have agreed to sell 130,000 prime tickets for the  Games to two corporate hospitality companies, the UK’s Daily Telegraph has discovered. One of the companies concerned is owned by a key figure in the notorious Salt Lake City vote buying scandal of the 1990s.

Tickets for the Games won’t be on sale to the public until 2011 yet Locog has signed deals with Mike Burton in a joint venture with French catering company Sodexo for 70,000 tickets and with US based JetSet Sports for 60,000 tickets.

The JetSet tickets are for its overseas corporate market, predominantly in the United States and Australia. The company’s founder and owner, Yugoslav-born multi-millionaire Sead Dizdarevic came to prominence following revelations that Salt Lake City bid committee officials had offered bribes and favours to International Olympic Committee members in exchange for their votes for the 2002 Winter Games. Dizdarevic, then a small-time travel operator, was implicated as allegedly having helped bank-roll the operation to curry favour with the bid committee.

Both JetSet and Mike Burton-Sodexo are believed to have paid about £5 million for their deals on top of the face value of the tickets but can expect to make big profits by bundling the tickets up with expensive accommodation and catering packages. Some of JetSet’s tickets are sold to non-corporate customers through a sister company, CoSport, though even these consumer packages are still beyond the reach of most ordinary fans.

Read about  Dizdarevic's monopoly on Winter Olympic tickets here.