This search enters the preliminary investigation opened on March 31 for aggravated money laundering of aggravated tax fraud, following the report of the Senate commission of inquiry on the influence of private consulting firms on public policies.
Le Monde with AFP
A search was underway, Tuesday May 24 in the afternoon, at the French headquarters of the McKinsey consulting firm located in the Champs-Elysées in Paris, learned the France-Presse (AFP) agency, from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). AFP journalists had noted, on Tuesday in the middle of the day, the presence of police officers with customs brassards at the reception of the headquarters of McKinsey.
This search enters the preliminary investigation opened on March 31 for aggravated money laundering of aggravated tax fraud, confirmed the PNF, requested by AFP. The PNF opened this investigation following the report of the Senate commission of inquiry into the influence of private consulting firms on public policies, during the first five -year term of Emmanuel Macron.
a Record amount of contracts with consulting firms
The French entities of the McKinsey cabinet were accused in a senatorial report published in mid-March of having set up a tax assembly allowing them not to pay any corporate tax between 2011 and 2020. McKinsey defended By claiming to respect the French tax rules, specifying that one of its subsidiaries had paid corporate tax for six years over the period mentioned by the Senate.
The latter had noted the growing influence of the cabinet and more generally of consulting firms in the state apparatus. In this report submitted on March 16, this commission assured that contracts between the State and several consulting firms had “more than doubled” between 2018 and 2021, reaching a record amount of more than one billion euros in 2021.
The government’s appeal to this American cabinet to support the executive in the Vaccination against COVVI-19 policy had already aroused controversy in January 2021, in addition to that of the end of the presidential campaign. Olivier Dussopt and Amélie de Montchalin, then ministers of public accounts and the public service, had even led a press conference on March 30 to justify state spending.
“that it goes penal “
The revelations of the commission of inquiry had sparked vivid controversies during the presidential campaign on the use of public funds. The opposition had repeatedly demanded the opening of an investigation into what it considers as favoritism, the macronist majority of which would show for the benefit of this consulting firm, some members of which were able to work for Emmanuel Macron, especially during of the 2017 presidential campaign.
Then candidate, Emmanuel Macron had estimated that the non-payment of corporate tax by McKinsey was explained by the tax rules in force. “If there is evidence of manipulation, that it goes criminal,” he said on March 27 to those who reproached him for these many contracts.
The PNF survey was finally triggered on March 31 after an internal assessment of the file, which consisted in carrying out first cross -checks and verifications on the nature of the Senatorial Report Revelations. It was entrusted to the service of judicial finance surveys, the tax police created in 2019 in Bercy.