According to AFP, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office recently opened an investigation into the conditions of the remuneration of Tony Estanguet, the president of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The investigation was entrusted to the police Parisian court last week.
Estanguet would have created a company
Tony Estanguet received annual remuneration of 270,000 euros gross until 2020, according to figures communicated by Cojop in 2018. This remuneration was then likely to change within a limit of 20%, depending on certain performance criteria. But as Cojop is a 1901 law type association, the remuneration of its directors is capped by law at significantly lower levels.
According to a recent article in Chained duckTony Estanguet, three-time Olympic canoe champion (in 2004, 2008 and 2012), would therefore have created a company which charges “ non-commercial services » at Cojop. Which questions the control of “ the reality and quality of services » carried out by the Estanguet company.
Contacted, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office responded to The Team : “ We do not wish to communicate on the opening of a possible investigation “.
Cojop surprised by the opening of an investigation
Cojop, for its part, reacted to the opening of the investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), with the AFP, expressing its “surprise. The framework for the remuneration of the president of the Organizing Committee is very strictly regulated. It was decided and validated by the first Board of Directors of the organizing committee on March 2, 2018, which ruled in its absence, sovereignly and independently ».
The amount of remuneration was decided on the proposal of a “ remuneration committee ” compound ” independent experts responsible for ensuring the relevance of our remuneration policy », added Cojop. THE ” payment terms » of the remuneration of Tony Estanguet « were validated by the general economic and financial controller, after consultation with Urssaf “, further clarified the authority.
“ The amount of invoices inherent to this remuneration is subject to an annual audit. (by one) internal audit unit independent of the executive of the organizing committee, (as well as) an examination by the remuneration committee », also underlined Cojop, specifying that this approach did not correspond “ with no obligation legal (but answered) to a desire for transparency. »
Revelations already in 2017 and 2021
At the start of 2021, two reports from the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) on the organization of the Paris Olympic Games noted “ risks of breaches of probity ” and of ” conflicts of interest “. In one of these reports, the AFA mentioned the case of Tony Estanguet’s company, pointing out a ” atypical assembly within the framework of an association under the 1901 law (Who) is not without its difficulties », recalled the Chained Duck.
The question of the remuneration of the main managers of the Organizing Committee had become sensitive since the attribution of the Games to Paris by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in September 2017. The Chained Duck had mentioned at that time a salary of 450,000 euros per year for Tony Estanguet. The latter immediately denied it.
The organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris is already the subject of three other separate financial investigations, in particular for suspicions of favoritism and misappropriation of public funds during the award of contracts.