Police raid the headquarters of the 2024 Paris Olympics in a corruption investigation – POLITICO

French financial police Tuesday morning searched the venue for the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to an internal email seen by Politico.

The email, which was sent to employees to warn them of the police presence, said the searches were being carried out by “criminal police and prosecutor teams” who were “collecting documents”.

Paris 2024 said in a statement: “A police search is currently taking place at the headquarters of the organizing committee. Paris 2024 is fully cooperating with the investigators to facilitate their investigations.”

Contacted by POLITICO, the French financial prosecutor (PNF) confirmed that raids took place in “several locations”, including the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics committee as well as the headquarters of Solideo, the public body responsible for the construction of the Paris Olympics. websites.

The raids are part of two “preliminary investigations” on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds and nepotism in relation to several public contracts awarded by Solideo and the Paris 2024 Olympics Committee.

The cabinet of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo — who is also Solido’s board chairman — told Politico that investigators had not been in contact with her at this point.

The Palestinian National Police said the headquarters of several private companies awarded public contracts were also searched on Tuesday.

We are aware that the police searched the Paris 2024 headquarters today. An IOC spokesperson said: “Paris 2024 has informed us that they are cooperating fully with the authorities on this matter and we will refer you to them for further information.”

Brigitte Henriques, President of the French National Olympic Committee, dramatically announced her resignation Last month, after infighting, he left the committee in turmoil.

The Olympic Games – one of the world’s leading sporting events – have been overshadowed by organizational misconduct in the recent past.

The Summer Olympics were in Tokyo 2020 It was marred by a scandalwhere a top advertising executive in Japan was arrested on multiple charges of accepting bribes from officials at other companies.

The Paris Games 2024 are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11.

This story has been updated.