During his time in the EU Parliament, Le Pen allegedly embezzled 600,000 euros
04/16/2022, 23:37
According to a media report, the European Parliament accuses several members of the right-wing National Front of having had false working relationships. The accusations against party leader Le Pen weigh heavily: she allegedly invested funds in companies for political purposes.
According to a media report, the EU’s anti-fraud agency Olaf accused French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen and several of her confidants of embezzling around €600,000 during her time as an MEP. French news portal “Mediapart” published excerpts from a new report by Olaf on Saturday. Le Pen will face Emmanuel Macron in the second round of presidential elections next Sunday.
Le Pen’s lawyer denied the allegations. It was “instrumentalization” just before the second round, said Rodolphe Bosselut of the AFP news agency. Parts of the report are “facts more than ten years old”. Marine Le Pen “has not been summoned by any French judicial authority,” he added. Neither he nor his client received the final report of the investigation started in 2016. Marine Le Pen was questioned in writing in March 2021.
“Mediapart” has published extracts from the new Olaf report on the expenditure of political groups in the European Parliament within the scope of its members’ terms of office. According to this, Le Pen and others would have used the funds for national political purposes, personal expenses or for services of companies related to his party or faction.
Paris prosecutor investigates allegations
Marine Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her ex-partner Louis Aliot and former far-right deputy Bruno Gollnisch allegedly embezzled around 600,000 euros, which they had to return. According to the report, Le Pen personally embezzled around €137,000 in public funds during his time as a Strasbourg parliamentarian between 2004 and 2017.
The Paris prosecutor confirmed to the AFP news agency that he received the report on March 11 and is currently examining it. Since June 2017, Marine Le Pen has also been under investigation on suspicion of getting bogus jobs for party members as assistants in the European Parliament. She is accused of “embezzlement of public funds” and “complicity” in the context of the judicial investigation.
Marine Le Pen is not the only politician from the former National Front (FN) party, now called the “Rassemblement National”, whom the EU Parliament has accused of false employment. Her father and Gollnisch, among others, are said to have done the same.