Nuzman was found guilty last November of corruption, criminal organisation, money laundering and tax evasion linked to Rio de Janeiro's successful bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

He was sentenced to 30 years and 11 months in prison.

Judge Marcelo Bretas ruled that Nuzman should not go to jail until the appeal process had been completed, however, so he is still living normally in Leblon, an upmarket district of Rio.

An appeal date was initially set for July but was postponed with no alternative yet announced.

At 80 years old, it looks increasingly unlikely that Nuzman will serve any time behind bars.

Nuzman had been formally charged in October 2017 over an alleged payment of $2 million (£1.75 million/€2.1 million) made to secure votes from International Olympic Committee (IOC) members to host the 2016 Games.

Nuzman, a former IOC member, had denied running a criminal organisation, money laundering and violating currency laws.

At the time of Nuzman's arrest, it was alleged that 16 gold bars worth $2 million stored in a bank in Switzerland were among his hidden assets.

Brazilian prosecutors alleged his estate increased in value by 457 per cent between 2006 and 2016.

They claimed not to have been able to locate any evidence of increased income.

At the same time as Nuzman, former Rio Governor Sergio Cabral, the businessman Arthur Soares and Leonardo Gryner, who had been the Rio 2016 director general of operations, were also sentenced.

Investigators alleged that all three and Nuzman coordinated to bribe the former President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack, as well as his son Papa Massata Diack for votes.

Cabral, the Governor of Rio State between 2003 and 2010, admitted he had paid about $2 million in exchange for up to nine votes at the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, where Rio was awarded the Games.

Cabral claimed Nuzman approached him in August 2009 and said: "Sergio, I want to tell you that the IAAF president, Lamine Diack, is a person that is open to undue advantages. 

"He can secure five or six votes. 

"In exchange, he wants $1.5 million (£1.3 million/€1.5 million)."

Cabral alleged that Nuzman approached him again a month later and said Papa Diack could secure nine votes for Rio in total but would need another $500,000 (£440,000/€510,000).

"I told him it would be done," Cabral told the court.

Cabral claimed he had bought votes for "the second stage of the vote," and that "no votes were bought after that."

After Chicago was eliminated in the first round and Tokyo in the second, Rio de Janeiro was awarded the Olympic and Paralympic Games by beating Madrid 66 votes to 32. 

The investigation in Brazil had begun in 2017 after the French newspaper Le Monde reported that members of the IOC had been bribed three days before the vote in Copenhagen.

Besides Diack, who died last December, among the IOC members to have been implicated in the scandal were Ukraine's Sergey Bubka, Namibia's Frankie Fredericks and Russia's Alexander Popov.

Bubka, Fredericks and Popov all deny the allegations.