VENICE, Italy -- A suspected Russian mobster might have contacted as many as six judges in trying to fix a pair of figure skating events at the Salt Lake City Olympics, Italian police said.

An Italian organized-crime unit revealed details of their operation Thursday, a day after arresting suspect Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov in Venice on U.S. conspiracy charges.

THE PLAYERS

Alimzan Tokhtakhounov: Reputed Russian gangster is charged in U.S. District Court with conspiring to rig Winter Olympics judging by arranging a vote swap that would give gold medals to the Russian team in pairs figure skating and a French duo in ice dancing. Court papers say wiretaps in an Italian organized crime investigation recorded Tokhtakhounov discussing the plot in a series of telephone calls during the Feb. 8-24 Olympics. Authorities have not released names of any alleged coconspirators. Tokhtakhounov, who is in custody in Venice, Italy, says he is innocent, according to his lawyer. Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze: Russian duo won the gold medal in pairs figure skating despite slipping during their routine, triggering an uproar at the Olympics over the event's judging. After an investigation by the International Skating Union, duplicate gold medals were awarded to runners-up Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada. Sikhardulidze says he was surprised by the allegations of a plot. Marie Reine Le Gougne: The French figure skating judge was suspended during the Olympics after saying she was pressured by France's skating federation to put Berezhnaya and Sikhardulidze first. She later recanted, but the International Skating Union suspended her from judging for three years and banned her from 2006 Winter Games. She says she doesn't know Tokhtakhounov, never had contact with him and has no knowledge of the alleged plot. Didier Gailhaguet: Head of the French skating federation said during the Olympics that Le Gougne was "manipulated'' into voting for the Russian pair. He later was suspended for three years and banned from the 2006 Winter Games. Gailhaguet hasn't returned calls seeking comment. Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat: French team won the gold medal in ice dancing a week after the figure skating competition. Lithuania's team filed a protest about the event's judging, but the appeal was rejected. Peizerat says he has never heard of Tokhtakhounov. Anissina, a native Russian, has not returned calls requesting comment. Not using any names other than Tokhtakhounov's, court papers say he talked by phone with the mother of a French ice dancer and bragged he would influence the judging. After the Olympics, investigators say, the ice dancer called Tokhtakhounov and told him she would have won without his help. -- The Associated Press

Tokhtakhounov is accused of scheming to persuade a French judge to vote for the Russian pairs team and a Russian judge to vote in turn for the French ice dancing team, according to a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. Both teams won gold.

A review of the scoring found that the French ice dancers -- Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat -- won by a 5-4 vote, receiving the votes of the judges from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine.

However, the Russian judge did not vote to give the French her first-place vote in ice dancing, instead picking the Russian team of Irina Lobacheva and Ilya Averbukh for the gold. Also voting for the Russians first were judges from Switzerland, Germany and Italy. The Russian team finished second in the competition.

ESPN has learned that because of scrutiny after the Olympic pairs competition -- where Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the gold medal by the slimmest of margins over Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier (both pairs were later awarded gold medals) -- the alleged conspirators realized that it would be too obvious if the Russian judge voted for the French in ice dancing. After counting votes, the alleged conspirators realized they had enough votes for the French to win even without the Russian vote, according to multiple law enforcement sources both in the U.S. and abroad.

European and federal law enforcement sources say the entire former Eastern Bloc vote is under scrutiny.

Ukrainian judge Yuki Balkov, one of those voting for the French team, had already been suspended for a year after the 1998 Olympics for voting improprieties. He was caught on tape by Canadian judge Jean Senft as he tried to fix the results of the 1998 Olympic ice dancing competition. He outlined the final results before the event took place, saying he could promise Canada a medal if the judge went along with his plan.

He was later reinstated and voted the French pair first and the Russians second in Salt Lake City.

In exchange for fixing the events, the reputed mobster wanted a visa to return to France, where he once lived, U.S. prosecutors say.

An Italian police official said Thursday that French ice dancer Marina Anissina is heard on a wiretap thanking Tokhtakhounov for his assistance in winning the Olympics.

Russian sports officials derided the accusations Thursday. One called the allegations a "funny fantasy'' that belonged in a Hollywood film script, not a U.S. federal court affidavit.

Lawyer Luca Saldarelli was accompanied by a Russian interpreter when he entered Venice's Santa Maria Maggiore prison Friday for his first meeting with his client.

Tokhtakhounov is expected to plead innocent to all charges and fight extradition, said Saldarelli. "According to what his relatives told me, he will deny any wrongdoing,'' the lawyer said. "He claims he is innocent.''

Italian police said Tokhtakhounov held a phone conversation with a man -- identified in some reports as French but, ESPN has learned, actually a Russian -- whom police said was identified on the tape as "Chevalier.'' The suspect also made references to judges, although none were heard speaking on the tapes.

Police said they did not know the names of the judges.

"We have recorded a conversation in which the suspect indicates that six judges may have been involved,'' police Col. Giovanni Mainolfi said. "However, we have no specific evidence against these judges at this time.''

Wiretaps used in an organized crime investigation captured a series of telephone calls between Tokhtakhounov in Italy and unnamed conspirators during the games. Those calls "lay out a pattern of conduct that connects those two events,'' U.S. Attorney James Comey said.

The suspect "arranged a classic quid pro quo: 'You'll line up support for the Russian pair, we'll line up support for the French pair and everybody will go away with the gold, and perhaps there'll be a little gold for me,''' Comey said.

French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said the day after the original pairs competition that she'd been pressured to vote for the Russians, who slipped during their routine while the Canadians were flawless.

"We did our job, and that's all that matters, and we're moving on to bigger and better things, and we're trying not to become involved because it has really nothing to do with us except for the fact that it was our event,'' Sale said Thursday on NBC's "Today'' show.

Sale and Pelletier said the sport needs reform, but no system will be perfect.

"Anything that has subjective judging is always going to be like that,'' Sale said.

"When you race against time, what's involved is doping, so every sport has something,'' Pelletier said.

The judging flap, the biggest in Olympics history, resulted in a duplicate set of gold medals being awarded to the Canadian pairs team.

Le Gougne later recanted but still was suspended, as was Didier Gailhaguet, the head of the French skating federation. Le Gougne's Salt Lake City-based lawyer, Erik Christiansen, said she "has no involvement and no knowledge of this person or these allegations.''

ESPN has learned that Le Gougne didn't speak with Tokhtakhounov directly. U.S. and European authorities are interested in speaking with her as well as Gailhaguet.

A week after the pairs competition, Anissina and Peizerat won France's first gold in figure skating since 1932.

"Everybody wants to claim a part of our victory at the Olympic Games for themselves,'' Peizerat told The Associated Press. "The judges think it's thanks to them that we're Olympic champions, top skating officials do too, now it's the Russian mafia.''

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said: "While we knew from previous investigations that the judgment in the pairs figure skating was not correct, we are shocked to learn of the alleged involvement of organized crime.''

But Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said the Russian pair won fairly and suggested the new allegations were part of an effort to justify the decision to award a second gold. "Now this funny fantasy appears,'' he said.

"It is more like a cinematic subject, a synopsis of a film script,'' he added.

U.S. investigators said Wednesday that they had obtained recorded telephone conversations between Tokhtakhounov and a French ice dancer, in which the suspect brags about being able to influence the outcome of competitions.

The U.S. complaint said wiretaps caught the defendant talking to a female ice dancer's mother. After the Olympics, the female ice dancer called Tokhtakhounov to discuss the outcome, the complaint said.

It was unclear exactly when the suspect might be extradited to the United States, but the process can last more than a month and could be delayed by the judiciary's summer recess.

Mainolfi said Italian authorities came upon the Olympic case by accident. They were investigating other activities involving the suspect when they came across the conversations.

"The investigation began more than a year ago,'' he said. "We are still investigating about 50 other suspects.''

The U.S. Justice Department and State Department are meeting to determine how to extradite Tokhtakhounov to the United States. By treaty, they have 45 days to give information to the Italian magistrate to convince him there is enough evidence to convict Tokhtakhounov if he were brought to the U.S.

Information from the Associated Press is included in this report.