Searches are being carried out this Tuesday at several sites related to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, including the headquarters of the organizing committee (COJO) and the company in charge of the Olympic works (Solideo), the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) reported at the request of AFP.
The Prosecutor’s Office partially confirmed France Télévisions’ information and specified that these searches are being carried out in the framework of two preliminary investigations opened in 2017 and 2022 related to suspicions of illegal conduct and favoritism. Both investigations are linked to contracts awarded in connection with the organization of the Games.
The OCOG had previously informed AFP that a search was being carried out at its headquarters in Saint-Denis, near Paris, without giving further details on the reason.
With fourteen months to go before the Games, the OCOG said it is cooperating fully with investigators to facilitate their inquiries.
According to a source close to the investigation, the searches are being carried out by the OCLCIFF (Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses) and the BRDE (Financial Brigade of the Paris Judicial Police), according to the same source.
COJO is constituted as an association, and the Court of Accounts is closely monitoring its activities and will soon issue a report on it.
In April 2021, two reports by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), to which AFP had access, pointed out “risks of irregularities” and “conflicts of interest” in the organization of the Games, which affected the image of an “exemplary” Olympic Games sought by the president of the Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet.
These two preliminary reports delivered at the beginning of 2021, of which the newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné revealed the content almost a month ago, focus on the OCOG and Solideo, the public entity in charge of the construction of the various facilities for the Games.
The AFA inspectors found the overall procurement process to be “imprecise and incomplete” and pointed to the existence of “uncontrolled potential conflict of interest situations.”