Paris police reportedly carried out raids at the offices of the Paris 2024 Olympic committee (Cojo) and those of SOLIDEO, the government organization in charge of most of the games’ infrastructure and development, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.
French media claim that the BRDE, the Parisian police’s financial brigade, as well as anti-corruption and financial crime detectives, were the units involved in the operation.
Although Cojo could not immediately provide an explanation for the raid, it did state that it was “cooperating fully with the investigators in order to facilitate their investigation.”
The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office acknowledged that the raids were connected to two “preliminary investigations” relating to financial irregularities involving contracts and public funds. The Paris 2024 offices and the headquarters of SOLIDEO were among “a number” of locations that were raided by police, according to the financial prosecutor’s office.
A preliminary investigation into “illegal conflict of interests, embezzlement of public funds, favoritism and concealment of favoritism targeting several contracts” given by the Paris 2024 committee was started by a French police anti-corruption unit in 2017. Another specialized French police finance unit launched a second preliminary inquiry in 2022 to look into allegations of “illegal conflict of interest, favoritism, and concealment of favoritism relating to several contracts” given out by the Paris 2024 Committee and SOLIDEO.
The games’ overall budget has increased from an early estimate of 6.6 billion euros in 2017 to at least 8.8 billion euros. The infrastructure alone is anticipated to cost 4 billion euros, from an initial estimate of 3.2 billion.
After Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, Paris is the third consecutive Summer Games organizer to be subject to investigations by anti-corruption authorities.
