Ryan Lochte Charged With Making False ‘Robbery’ Report, Summoned to Brazil

UPDATED at 6:40 p.m.: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — Embattled gold medalist Ryan Lochte has been charged by Brazilian authorities for lying about a late-night Rio outing that he claimed ended with an armed robbery, according to the Associated Press.

Lochte was charged late Thursday afternoon with filing a false police report, with a court planning to summon him back to the country.

Police said they had evidence swimmers Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen vandalized a gas station Aug. 14 after a night out partying during the Olympics. Lochte reportedly made up the story after they broke a locked door at a gas station on their way back to the Olympic village, then argued with a gas station employee about the damage, according to multiple media reports. The athletes paid about $60 to compensate for the damage and left.

Lochte has been charged, and the case has been referred to the courts, Brazilian police said, according to Yahoo News. "Ryan Lochte was charged with the crime of falsely reporting a crime," police said in a statement.

The indictment will be forwarded to the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission, AP says, which could penalize Lochte, even suspending him to keep him out of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The swimmer has been summoned to testify in Rio over his apparent vandalism at a gas station during the Olympics, a Brazilian official confirmed to ABC News.

He cannot testify in the U.S. and would have to appear in person in Brazil's courts or be tried in absentia, Fox News reports. There is no penalty for Lochte if he does not appear in Brazil to testify.

Neither Lochte nor his attorney have yet commented on the summons and criminal charge by Brazilian authorities.

In one other new wrinkle to the saga, Lochte — who lost all his endorsement deals because of the turmoil — signed a new deal Thursday with Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops. He will appear in commercial and print ads for the product with the tagline, "Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops: Forgiving On Your Throat."

"We all make mistakes, but they're rarely given front-page scrutiny," Pine Bros. CEO Rider McDowell said in a statement, reports AdWeek. "He's a great guy who has done incredible work with charities. I'm confident that Pine Bros. fans will support our decision to give Ryan a second chance."

The swimmer thanked the company via Twitter:

As Brazilian authorities examined surveillance footage from the gas station — where an armed guard tried to stop the athletes' car — Lochte hopped a flight back to the United States. Teammates Conger, of Rockville, Maryland, and Bentz, of Atlanta, were removed from their U.S.-bound flight for questioning and reportedly told police the robbery story was fabricated. Both men were allowed to fly home a day later, with local crowds jeering at them, calling them "liars" and "fakes."

Feigen has apologized for making a false police report and agreed to pay a $10,800 fine, to an unspecified charity, in order to get his passport back and receive permission to leave Brazil, reports SBNation.

Police are wrapping up their investigation this week and will hand it over to Rio's public prosecutor, NBC News reports. Investigators are recommending prosecutors take up the case, and a formal request will likely be made to a U.S. court asking for cooperation in returning Lochte to Brazil.

As his story drew heavy scrutiny from police in Brazil, Lochte posted an apology on Twitter, and on Saturday told Brazil's Globo TV: "I wasn't lying to a certain extent. I over-exaggerated what was happening to me."

Lochte posted a statement on Twitter Aug. 19 that apologized for taking the focus away from the Olympic Games. He said that he should have been more responsible while out in Rio — and said he was heavily intoxicated on the night in question — but didn't admit to a lie.

"It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country ... and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave," Lochte said.

Read his full statement here:

The scandal has cost Lochte lucrative endorsement deals. On Monday, his four major sponsors cut ties with the swimmer, including swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing brand Ralph Lauren, skin care firm Syneron-Candela and mattress maker airweave, reports CNBC.

"I was immature and I made a stupid mistake. I'm human. I made a mistake and I definitely learned from this," Lochte said in an interview on the "Today" show. "They (the people of Rio) put on a great Games... And my immature, intoxicated behavior tarnished that a little."

Maryland swimmer Jack Conger on Saturday said in a statement that he deeply regretted the “trouble and embarrassment this event has brought to the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, and the distraction it has caused from the achievements of my fellow Olympians.” The relay swimmer said he had been “completely truthful” in his account of the event, reports The Washington Post.

“This has been an unsettling, humbling and frightening experience,” Conger said in the release. “It’s a reminder that all of us, when we travel and especially when we represent the US in the Olympics, are ambassadors for our country and should be on our best behavior.”

Conflicting Accounts Given in Rio

US Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun last week apologized "to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil," saying that the behavior of the swimmers was not acceptable and that potential consequences would be decided later.

An unnamed Brazilian police official told The Associated Press that 12-time Olympic medalist Lochte fabricated the story about being robbed at gunpoint, first telling his mother about the purported crime, says ESPN.

Judge Marcello Rubioli, the head of the special court handling the case that has taken on international news coverage as Brazil disputes the PR black eye, says that making a false claim carries little punishment in the country.

As the furor began, Lochte talked to NBC's Matt Lauer and tweaked his earlier comments on the robbery. NBC News reported that Lochte said he and his teammates weren't pulled over, as he had previously stated, but that they were at a gas station when they were robbed. And he said the robber pointed a gun in his direction, not at his forehead, as he had first said.

"We wouldn't make this story up," Lochte reportedly told "Today's" Lauer.

One discrepancy Lochte discussed was whether one of the robbers had actually put a gun to Lochte's forehead.

"That's not exactly what happened," Lochte said, according to a USA Today story. Lochte told Lauer one of the robbers cocked the gun and pointed it inches away from him, but not right at his forehead as he first said.

Photo: Ryan Lochte, Credit: Team USA/Flickr