Police yesterday raided the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics just over a year out from the opening ceremony of the quadrennial sporting showpiece.
Raids were carried out at the headquarters of the committee, which is known as COJO, and at the offices of Solideo, the body in charge of the Olympic construction sites, a source close to the investigation said.
Prosecutors confirmed that they had authorized the raids in connection to two separate ongoing investigations.
Photo: Reuters
A spokesman for prosecutors said the probes concerned “illegal conflict of interest, misuse of public funds and favoritism.”
COJO said that they were “cooperating fully with the investigators in order to facilitate their investigation.”
This is the first such raid on the organizing committee headquarters.
The searches of their premises were conducted by anti-corruption and financial crime investigators and the BRDE, the financial brigade of the Parisian police, another source close to the probe said.
The first investigation was launched in 2017 involving the anti-corruption and financial crime investigators concerning a series of contracts signed off by “several powerful decisionmakers linked to the Games, notably the COJO and their predecessors GIP 2024 [the bidding committee],” the prosecutors said.
The second investigation was opened last year and allocated to the BRDE, the financial brigade of the Parisian police.
The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office acted after the French Anti-Corruption Agency raised red flags over several deals signed off by COJO and Solideo.
According to a source close to the case it involves “consultancy contracts” on “different topics.”
Another source said that one of the two investigations surrounded Edouard Donnelly, executive director of operations for COJO who is also a service provider for the Games through his company RNK.
Two years ago two reports by the French Anti-Corruption Agency highlighted the “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 organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, wished for.
Agency inspectors said the procedure for purchases was “imprecise and incomplete” and emphasized that there “exists sometimes potential situations of conflicts of interests which are not overseen correctly.”
The International Olympic Committee said it had taken note of the raids.
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