France: European anti-fraud report targets Marine Le Pen

Right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen, who is running for the French presidential election, and relatives have been accused of embezzling nearly 600,000 euros from European people during their tenure as MEPs.

Also read: Tens of thousands of demonstrators in France against the right, away from Macron favoritism

Also read: Macron environmentalist, Le Pen “mother”

The allegations came from the European Anti-Fraud Office, according to a new report released by French information site Mediapart on Saturday and submitted to French law.

In response to a query from AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had received the report on March 11, which is currently being analyzed.

AFP Me Rodolphe Bosselut, a lawyer for Marine Le Pen, responded during the second round of the presidential election campaign on April 24: , And she will face the current president of the Center, Emmanuel Macron.

Me Bosselut also said that Olaf was “outspoken about the anti-fraud (European anti-fraud office) approach” and that some people were outraged about “facts over ten years old”.

Marine Le Pen “also received no summons by any French legal authority”, also inquiring whether he or his client were the recipients of the final report.

According to him, Olaf’s investigation has been open since 2016 and Ms Le Pen was questioned by mail in March 2021.

Olaf’s new report, published by Mediapart Extracts, deals with fees that political groups can use in the context of their mandate as MEPs, and used by Marine Le Pen and her relatives for national political purposes, personal expenses or services. His party did worse than expected from opinion polls, which saw them at gaining about a third of the seats in the National Rally (RN).

Olaf Marine Le Pen, three other former MEPs – her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her former colleague Louise Eliot and RN National Office member Bruno Golnish – were also implicated in the ENL scandal.

The office alleges they stole nearly 600,000 euros, of which Reimbursement was recommended.

According to the report, when the National Rally candidate was MEP between 2004 and 2017 he personally stole 137,000 euros from the public from the Strasbourg Parliament.

Since June 2017, Marine Le Pen has also been prosecuted during a trial in Paris on suspicion of fabricating jobs for party aides in the European Parliament.

As part of the investigation, she was charged with “misappropriation of public funds” and “misuse” of the crime.