The Paris 2024 Olympics headquarters was raided by French financial police on Tuesday morning, June 20, as part of an inquiry into the allocation of public contracts.
French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated to his ministers the importance of a successful Paris Olympics since the games were awarded to the French capital in July 2017, which was just a few months after Macron's election. The possibility of corruption involving contracts might bring a hit to the president's reputation.
In March, Macron stated that the Paris Games should "welcome the world in the best possible conditions of safety, organization, social and ecological responsibility."
Raids in Public Contract Allocation Probes
POLITICO obtained a copy of an internal email sent by the organizing committee, which said that teams from the public prosecutor's office and the criminal police had conducted searches and were gathering documents.
Paris 2024 released a statement saying, "A police search is currently underway at the headquarters of the Organising Committee. Paris 2024 is cooperating fully with the investigators to facilitate their investigations."
The French financial prosecutor (PNF) has confirmed searches at many locations, including the Paris 2024 Olympics Committee's offices and those of Solideo, the public entity in charge of the building sites for the Paris Olympics.
Both Solideo and the Paris 2024 Olympic Committee have been accused of possible wrongdoing in the awarding of many public contracts, prompting the raids that are part of two preliminary investigations.
POLITICO was informed by the Cabinet of Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo that investigators had not contacted her. Hidalgo is the president of Solideo's board.
According to the PNF, on Tuesday, they also conducted searches at the corporate offices of many private businesses that have been given government contracts.
"We are aware that there has been a search by police of the Paris 2024 headquarters today. We have been informed by Paris 2024 that they are cooperating fully with the authorities in this matter, and we would refer you to them for further information," a representative for International Olympic Committee said.
Scandals With Organizers Tarnishing the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games, which is one of the most important athletic events in the world, has been tarnished by scandals involving its organizers.
Back then, there was a major controversy surrounding the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, with a senior Japanese advertising executive being jailed on numerous counts of taking bribes from officials from other corporations.
Due to previous scandals, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were the first to implement an anti-corruption strategy for the Games' organization in conjunction with Transparency International.
But in 2021, France's anti-corruption agency said there was a chance of conflicts of interest between the Paris Olympics Committee and Solideo, citing unclear and unfinished processes that were not being followed and watched closely enough.
The Paris 2024 Games is set to begin on July 26 and go through August 11.
