Staff Writer
According to sources, French investigators searched the headquarters of the Paris Olympic organizers on Tuesday as part of investigations into possible wrongdoing in connection with contracts for the Games. This is the third consecutive Summer Olympics where there have been corruption claims.
The Paris organizing committee acknowledged that a search was taking place at its offices in the Saint-Denis district and stated that it was cooperating. It made no more comments.
According to a financial prosecutor’s office official who was not permitted to be named publicly in accordance with office regulation, Tuesday’s search and other associated raids were connected to two preliminary investigations concerning the Olympics that had not previously been made public. One investigation was started in 2017, the year the International Olympic Committee chose Paris.
Committee will serve as the 2024 host; the other started last year.
The biggest sporting event in the world has frequently been the subject of corruption claims, including those involving the way the Games were chosen as well as the distribution of contracts for construction, sponsorship, and team services.
Several IOC members were expelled after allegations of vote buying surrounding the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
These controversies brought up memories of those with the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, which prompted measures that reduced IOC members’ interactions with candidate nations but did not totally eliminate the opportunity for corruption.
However, Paris 2024 has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that it would be different. The Games, the largest event France has hosted in decades, are being hailed as a celebration of openness after two Olympics were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and as a model of democratic celebration after two World Cups were marred by worries about human rights in Russia and Qatar.
In order to promote openness and social fairness, the organizers and Paris City Hall have planned an outdoor opening ceremony along the Seine that will be open to the public for free.
about 500,000 individuals. The Games will take place between July 26 and August 11, 2024.
Saccage 2024, an anti-Olympics organization that claims the Games have a significant negative impact on society and the environment, said it was “very pleased” that the raids happened.
The organization stated in a statement that “for us, an event of Olympic proportions cannot be held without corruption.” No matter the nation, it is necessary because of the scale of the event.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation was started in 2017 and is looking into allegations of favoritism and alleged theft of public funds as well as issues regarding an unnamed contract signed by Paris organizers.
The 2022 one came after a French Anti-Corruption Agency audit. According to the prosecutor’s office, the case centers on multiple alleged instances of conflict of interest and favoritism.
agreements made between the organizing committee and Solideo, the government organization in charge of Olympic infrastructure.
Prosecutors claimed that those body’s offices were also searched. Le Monde reports that raids were also conducted at the corporate headquarters of a number of businesses and consultants involved in the Games’ organization.
For the multibillion-dollar Olympics, Solideo is in charge of overseeing the construction and rehabilitation of more than 60 projects, including the athletes’ village in the Saint-Denis area, which will supply roughly 2,000 housing units after the games.
The organizers told the IOC that they are working with law enforcement, the IOC claimed in a statement. It made no additional remarks.
As the IOC executive board’s two-day summit in Lausanne, Switzerland, got underway, the raids took place.
The conference “will of course be about Paris, where we have some good news after the visit of the coordination mission and after my visit to France, to President Macron, and also the organizing committee,” IOC president Thomas Bach told reporters early on Monday.
When Paris received its Olympics six years ago, the IOC also granted Los Angeles, its lone surviving challenger for the 2028 Summer Games.
The possibility of vote-trading and bribery was reduced by avoiding a disputed vote, and the process has been adjusted once again to virtually end public campaigning. After being preselected by the IOC to get exclusive negotiating rights, Brisbane was chosen two years ago to host the 2032 Summer Games.
French sports have seen unrest in the years leading up to the 2024 Olympics.
Recent pleas for sports leaders to put their differences aside and concentrate on delivering the Games came from Paris organizers after the president of the French Olympic Committee resigned following a period of bitter infighting.
Additionally, Noel Le Grat resigned from his position as president of the French Soccer Federation in February after a government audit determined that his managerial style and behavior toward women rendered him ineligible for the position. The French Rugby Federation’s president, Bernard Laporte, resigned in January after being found guilty of corruption and unlawfully acquiring assets and receiving a sentence of probation.
The Rugby World Cup sacked Claude Atcher as its CEO in October of last year. This tournament, which starts in France in September, will also be used to gauge how well France has prepared for the Olympics’ security aspects. Atcher was fired when French labor inspectors looked into his behavior at work.
