Paris Olympic organisers’ headquarters searched in French corruption investigations
PARIS (AP) — French investigators searched the Paris Olympic organisers’ headquarters on Tuesday as part of corruption investigations into contracts linked to the Games, according to officials, the third straight time graft allegations have dogged a Summer Olympics.
The Paris organising committee said in a statement that a search was underway at their headquarters in the suburb of Saint-Denis, and said it was cooperating. It would not comment further.
Tuesday’s search and other related raids were linked to two preliminary investigations related to the Olympics that had not previously been made public, according to an official with the financial prosecutor’s office, who was not authorised to be publicly named according to office policy. One probe was opened in 2017 — the year Paris was picked by the International Olympic Committee as the 2024 host — and the other began last year.
Corruption allegations have hung over the world’s biggest sporting event many times — from accusations surrounding how the Games were awarded in the first place to how contracts for construction, sponsorship and team services were handed out.
Accusations of vote buying linked to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the Tokyo Games in 2021 led to the removal of several members of the IOC.
Those scandals revived memories of ones surrounding the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games that led to reforms that limited IOC members’ contact with candidate countries, though did not entirely remove the scope for corruption.
But Paris 2024 had gone to lengths to prove it would be different. The biggest event France is hosting in decades, the Games are being billed as a celebration of openness after two Olympics closed off by the COVID-19 pandemic, and as an example of democratic celebration after two World Cups tainted by human rights concerns in Qatar and Russia.
The IOC said in a statement it was informed by the organisers that they are cooperating with authorities. It did not comment further.
The raids unfolded as the IOC executive board began a two-day meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
