Olympic officials and agents controlling tickets for 54 countries are alleged to have breached regulations on ticket sales for London 2012.
The International Olympic Committee have held an emergency meeting of their ruling executive board via conference call after undercover investigations by the Sunday Times newspaper.
The allegations are now to be investigated by the IOC's ethics commission, a senior IOC source has confirmed to Press Association Sport.
The IOC will also consider a complete shake-up of how Olympic tickets are distributed among member countries.
The Sunday Times, posing as envoys of a Middle Eastern ticket tout, say they found 27 officials and agents representing 54 countries who were willing to breach rules on selling tickets.
One, from Serbia, offered 1,500 tickets for £80,000 in cash, said the newspaper, while they allege China's official ticket agency agreed to sell the best seats in the stadiums for up to £6,000 each.
Spyros Capralos, the president of Greece's Olympic committee, is also alleged to have breached regulations, says the Sunday Times.
The IOC confirmed they were investigating the allegations.
An IOC statement read: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has moved quickly to deal with allegations that some National Olympic Committees (NOC) and Authorised Ticket Resellers (ATR) have broken rules relating to the sale of Olympic tickets.
"After claims that several NOCs and ATRs were reportedly willing to break the rules by offering to buy or sell tickets outside their territory, sell tickets at inflated prices, or sell tickets to unauthorised resellers, the IOC has ordered an immediate inquiry and referred the allegations to its independent ethics commission.
"On being informed of the allegations, the IOC immediately convened an extraordinary meeting of its executive board and determined a number of actions - the convening of the ethics commission and asking for any evidence of wrongdoing to be provided to the commission without delay.
"The IOC takes these allegations very seriously and has immediately taken the first steps to investigate. Should any irregularities be proven, the organisation will deal with those involved in an appropriate manner.
"The NOCs are autonomous organisations, but if any of the cases are confirmed the IOC will not hesitate to impose the strongest sanctions.
"The IOC has also determined that it will take on board any recommendations coming out of the inquiry to improve the way that tickets are allocated and sold internationally in the future."
what do you think?
Ron Cheetham
ive said it before and ill repeat it now , itll end bad , maybe the Olympics will succeed but everything else ,the infrastructure all around it , tickets , air travel, tube , transport etc etc ,everyones out for what they can make , a recipe for trouble
bobh_385
just shows how corrupt those in high places are
Adrian Price
Its no surprise to us ordinary people that those who have access to the tickets will try to make loads of money to line their own pockets , officials like mp,s and top government personnel will not have any problems getting in to any event they want while we spend hours online for nothing . we will never know the true cost of these game to the British people but it costs everyone of us to stage this games and most of us will get nothing from them but when this country is struggling they pour money into something that is a short term instead of what matters most good jobs /good pay .corrupt officials love these opportunities to fund their life styles..
Gillian Stafford
Ticket rip offs by corrupt officials and agents. Wow ! - never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that.
Gordon Wright
Yeah Gillian, fancy that eh??
kristina b
there are loads of "agents" selling tickets in this country too - it's supposed to be the people's games and available to all at reasonable prices - i think it's appalling - my modern pentathlon ticket cost £20 and some are being sold for £130. £20 is a sensible price for a half-day session of early-rounds
Joyce Ptaszek
Once again greed greed greed and this is just the tip of the iceberg and who is paying for this farce.?Yes the British tax payer, in some form or other you and I are subsidising the whole gravy train.
Graham Mcneill
now we know why coe and blair and the rest were so keen to get there grubby hands on these games mark my words there names will eventually pop up in this fiasco.just goes to show the line im doing this for sport is a load of rubbish
Gordon Wright
The answer is simple, instead of paying inflated prices for tickets and accommodation: Boycott the games and boycott London for the rest of the year. That's what will really hurt these people. So the next time London stages a major event, perhaps they'll learn the lesson.......
Luke Andrew King
you guys want to think yourselves lucky us poor scmucks in weymouth have to pay to use our own facilities like the beach and a public area known as the nothe fort is toatlly closed off for the entirety of the olympics
Barry Stephenson
Weymouth is brilliant, but I can't afford an already inflated price for a holiday cottage rental. We visited last year and were gobsmacked at the prices for this year even outside the Olympic week. Let's face it, the general public wouldn't recognise the winner in any sailing boat race so why expect us to pay over the odds to see what is " normal" in the bay? The Nothe is the best spot to see anything in the bay, so no suprise that it's off limits to Joe Public. Money talks !
denis parsons
Boycott the games for ever.I emailed Tony Blair and warned him this would happen.While they are getting rich for building the stadium,the tax payers are paying for the security of the place whereas they ought to be charging these business men who started it all.
Peter Buddle
8:12am on 17/6/2012
Here we go again miss selling of tickets i tell the outcome no one will be found gulty they want to look nearer to home i tryed to get tickets for the ladies Cup Final only bercause the mens where to dear what was left for jo bogs i rang the ticket line for 5 tickets but was told i can have 2 or 4 but not 5 together i said have u got 5 anywhere they said yes but cant sell odd tickets what a joke these games are not for the working class only the well off of this world