Thunderclap nine months before the 2024 Olympics: a new investigation by the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) is looking into suspicions of fraud surrounding the organization of the emblematic opening ceremony, and gave rise to searches on Wednesday .
AFP learned on Thursday from sources close to the case and judicial sources that searches had been carried out the day before by financial investigators from Oclciff (Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses) at the headquarters of the Committee of organization of the Olympic Games (Cojo) as well as with the event companies Double 2, Ubi Bene, Obo and Paname 24.
The torch relay also targeted
“No police custody took place”, specified the judicial source, according to which “these operations take place within the framework of a preliminary investigation led by the PNF into the counts of illegal taking of interest, favoritism and concealment concerning several markets linked to the 2024 Olympic Games, opened after the searches of June 20, 2023.
These first operations before the summer were carried out as part of two other investigations also led by the PNF and also relating to suspicions of favoritism and misappropriation of public funds during the award of contracts by Cojo and Solideo, the establishment responsible for the construction of the Olympic works. In these two procedures, investigators are interested in around twenty potentially contentious contracts, according to a source close to the investigation.
But this time, as one of the sources close to the matter confirms to AFP, the new procedure targets in particular the emblematic opening ceremony of the Olympic Games scheduled for July 26, 2024 on the Seine in Paris, as well as the ceremony opening of the Paralympic Games on August 28, 2024 at the bottom of Avenue des Champs-Elysées and on Place de la Concorde.
Indeed, the companies Double 2, Ubi Bene and Obo are part of the quintet of French event production agencies united under the Paname 2024 pavilion and responsible for these opening ceremonies.
According to this source close to the matter, several other markets are also targeted by this investigation, including that of another emblematic event, the Olympic torch relay. “Paris 2024 confirms that the PNF presented itself at its headquarters on Wednesday October 18, and obtained all the information it requested. Paris 2024 is fully collaborating with the investigation as it has always done,” Cojo told AFP about Wednesday’s search.