The South Korean, who resigned from the IOC in 2005 to avoid being expelled, is currently using the rings on his new website www.kimunyong.com which promotes his connection to the sport and the Olympic Movement.

But the rings are a protected symbol and he has used them illegally, the IOC told insidethgames.

A spokesman said: "We will contact Mr Kim and ask him to correct this."

Kim's new website details his 20-year career as a member of the IOC and the various roles he held, including being vice-president and serving on several commissions.

"This website is to inform miraculous development of Korean sports as well as Korean economy," he writes on an introduction to the site.

"It hopes to serve as a future guideline to Olympic Movement, Korean sports in the world and taekwondo."

But it fails to mention that Kim had resigned from the IOC in May 2005 when he was facing expulsion after an Ethics Commission report found he had "seriously tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement" after he was found guilty of corruption and embezzlement in Seoul.

He was sentenced to a two-year jail term and a fine of $760,800 (£501,800).

Once one of the most powerful officials in the IOC, Kim was arrested while in hospital in 2004 connected with his leadership of the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and the World Taekwondo Federation.

When he was sentenced, his lawyer claimed his actions and business conduct were rooted in South Korea’s dictatorship period of the 1970s and 1980s and it was unfair to judge him by present-day values.

In 1999 Kim had been one of the officials given a "most serious warning" after he was among the members implicated in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal.

The IOC Ethics Commission found a Salt Lake bid official had arranged to pay at least part of the salary of Kim's son when he worked for an American company.

Kim denied all knowledge of the arrangement and the commission said in a report that it could not prove otherwise.

The warning seriously damaged Kim's chances of replacing Samaranch as the President of the IOC and Jacques Rogge beat him in the 2001 election.

Kim's financial dealings during the case of which he was jailed came under scrutiny, including whether he smuggled $90,000 (£59,000) overseas to pay legal fees for his son, arrested in Bulgaria in 2003 for illegally obtaining an American green card.

He was also suspected of receiving money in bribes in 2001 for helping two businessmen gain memberships to the KOC - although he acknowledged getting the money, he said they were not bribes.

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