Organisers of the Paris 2024 Olympics said on Thursday their headquarters had been raided Wednesday by the country’s national financial prosecutor and a judicial source said the raid, which also targeted event management firms, were part of an ongoing probe into alleged favouritism.
“Paris 2024 confirms that the PNF [Parquet national financier] visited its headquarters on Wednesday October 18th and obtained all the information it requested,” the organisers said in a statement.
“Paris 2024 is co-operating fully with the investigation, as it has always done.”
A judicial source said the raids were part of an investigation opened into suspicion of “illegal taking of interest, favouritism and concealment” in the award of several contracts.
In the past, the prosecutor’s office had already opened two preliminary investigations, the first, started in 2017 concerned “counts of illegal taking of interests, misappropriation of public funds, favouritism and concealment of favouritism aimed at a market passed through the organising committee”. The second investigation, opened in 2022, concerned “counts of illegal taking of interests, favouritism and concealment of favouritism targeting a contract concluded by the organising committee”.
The 2024 Olympics will take in Paris between July 26th and August 11th next year. Paris will become the second city (after London) to host the Summer Olympics three times, previously hosting the event in 1900 and 1924.
