In a report by the OLAF revealed by “Mediapart”, the candidate of the national meeting to the presidential election and three other former MEPs are accused of hiking nearly 620,000 euros of public money from the Parliament of Strasbourg .
Le Monde
A report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), transmitted on 11 March to French justice, calls for four former MEPs of the extreme right, including Marine Le Pen, for making an abusive use of nearly 620,000 euros of public money, according to information revealed by Mediapart Saturday, April 16
According to the online information site, which publishes excerpts from the document, the national rally candidate (RN) is blamed by OLAF to have personally diverted nearly 137,000 euros of public money From the Parliament of Strasbourg when it was MEP (2004-2017). Bruno Gollnisch and Louis Aliot, both RN, are also involved, as well as Jean-Marie Le Pen, to whom OLAF calls a little over 303,000 euros. All would have “jeopardized the reputation of the institutions of the Union” by their “fraudulent acts” “likely to give rise to criminal prosecution”, according to the report quoted by Mediapart. For its part, the parquet of Paris has indicated that the document was “during analysis”.
In detail, OLAF points to several expenses deemed suspicious, such as 23,100 euros of promotional objects delivered to the party headquarters and who “appear to have been purchased for the Congress of the FN [National Front] in Lyon” in 2014 , or still 4 107 euros of bottles of Beaujolais, which would have been, according to Mediapart, distributed by Bruno Gollnish during the same congress.
already indicted
For his part, Marine Le Pen justified the European character of the events for which Parliament’s money had been used, or responded that it was not aware of certain facts. reproached. His lawyer also reported to Mediapart that she “ignores all” of the conclusions of the report to which she has never “had access”, while it is “yet a particularly concerned person”.
The national gathering candidate has already been indicted since 2018 for “trusted abuse” and “diversion of public funds” in the case of parliamentary assistants. Opened in 2016, the investigation, which is partly based on an OLAF report, focuses on a possible “system” organized by the party and its Chairperson – what they dispute – to finance salaries of its permanent on the Deniers of the European Union, by diverting the envelopes of the Europétés reserved for the use of parliamentary assistants. The injury was estimated at 6.8 million euros by the European Parliament.