Police raid Paris 2024 Olympics headquarters
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
France’s PNF said the Paris 2024 headquarters, known as Cojo, were searched amid a preliminary investigation launched in 2017.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
PARIS – The headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics organising committee and those of its infrastructure partner were raided by police on Tuesday, as part of investigations into alleged embezzlement of public funds and favouritism, prosecutors said.
France’s national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF) said the Paris 2024 headquarters were searched amid a preliminary investigation launched in 2017 into contracts made by the Games’ organising committee.
The headquarters of Solideo, the public body responsible for delivering Olympic and Paralympic infrastructure, were also searched amid a preliminary investigation dating back to 2022, following an audit by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), the PNF added.
“A search is currently under way at the headquarters of the organising committee,” Paris 2024 said in a statement.
It did not give further details, but added: “Paris 2024 is cooperating fully with the investigators to facilitate their inquiries
“We do not have anything else to share at the moment.”
This is the first such raid on the organising committee headquarters.
Two years ago, two reports by the AFA highlighted “risks affecting probity” and “conflicts of interests” which it warned could impinge on the “whiter than whiter” image of the Games that the head of the organising committee, Tony Estanguet, wished for.
AFA inspectors said the procedure for purchases was “imprecise and incomplete” and emphasised that there “exists sometimes potential situations of conflicts of interests which are not overseen correctly”.
The raids are the latest drama to affect French sports in the past year.
In May, Brigitte Henriques surprised many by resigning as the president of the French Olympic Committee.
Her departure led the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to issue a statement that “calls on everybody to take responsibility so that the internal arguments that have affected the (French Olympic Committee) these past few months cease”.
A successor is yet to be named.
Several federations – football, rugby, gymnastics and tennis – were also embroiled in scandals.
There have been two high-profile resignations as a result – the octogenarian president of the French Football Federation, Noel le Graet, stepped down in February
That came just two months after France lost in the final of the football World Cup in Qatar.
Former sports minister and French rugby coach Bernard Laporte also quit his role as president of the French Rugby Federation in January, after being convicted of corruption – months away from France hosting the men’s Rugby World Cup.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will be staged from July 26 to Aug 11 with the Paralympic Games taking place from Aug 28-Sept 8.
AFP, REUTERS
