The Irish Independent has reported that THG, the British company owned by Marcus Evans and whose director Kevin Mallon faces charges of ticket touting, forming a criminal cartel, illicit marketing, embezzlement, tax evasion and money laundering along with Hickey, were appointed by the OCI before the pair were detained in Rio de Janeiro.

The company was turned down for performing the role at Rio 2016 following a rejection from the Organising Committee, which in turn was supported by the IOC.

THG will be responsible for managing the OCI's ticket allocation at both Pyeongchang 2018 and the next edition of the Summer Games in the Japanese capital in four years' time.

In a statement sent to the Irish Independent, the OCI claim, however, that the deal with THG for the next two Olympics may be withdrawn if the company was found to have been involved in wrongdoing as part of the ongoing investigation into the furore which occurred at Rio 2016.

"The OCI ATR for the Pyeongchang Games is THG [who were accepted by the Pyeongchang Olympics Organising Committee]," the statement read.

"However, in recent weeks the OCI wrote to THG putting them on notice that if any wrongdoing was found in the investigation of THG and PRO10 in the context of the Rio Olympics that the OCI would notify the Pyeongchang Organising Committee of same and THG could risk losing the contract."

The decision raises questions as to why THG were chosen as the ATR for Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 when they were rejected from the position for Rio 2016.

THG were the ATR for the OCI at London 2012 and Sochi 2014.

It was announced today that the OCI Crisis Management Sub Committee had appointed global auditing giants Deloitte to "conduct an independent review of the governance arrangements under its current Constitution" in the wake of the ticketing debacle which engulfed the organisation at the Olympics.

The review will propose changes to the governance of the OCI, which has come under fire in the wake of the ticket touting allegations, and could affect the OCI Memorandum and Articles of Association/Constitution.

The issues will be discussed with relevant stakeholders, including the IOC, the European Olympic Committees - of which Hickey was President until he temporarily stepped down from his sporting roles following his dramatic arrest at Rio 2016 - and Sport Ireland.

Deloitte will also put together a draft report of alterations they think could be made to the OCI.

"It is anticipated that the initial exercise will be concluded within a month and the report will then be shared with the OCI Executive Committee," an OCI statement read. 

"It is expected that all agreed changes to the OCI Constitution will then be put to an OCI EGM soon after."

The development comes after Brazilian police investigating ticketing touting at last month's Olympic Games widened their search to include OCI sports director Martin Burke yesterday.

They alleged that a hard drive seized from the offices of the OCI in the Olympic Village on August 21 belonging to Burke, contained a file entitled "THG additional tickets", said detective Ricardo Barboza de Souza. 

Police also presented the contract between Pro 10 and the OCI, signed by Hickey, which they insist "proves that the Hickey knew of the scheme" and that he was the "mastermind of the entire criminal scheme".

A "vast amount" of additional material, such as e-mails between Hickey and Evans was also found, police claimed.

insidethegames has contacted the IOC for comment.