During her time in the European Parliament
Le Pen is said to have embezzled 600,000 euros
04/16/2022, 11:37 p.m
According to a media report, the European Parliament accuses several members of the right-wing Front National of having maintained bogus employment relationships. The allegations against party leader Le Pen weigh heavily: She is said to have invested funds in companies for political purposes.
According to a media report, the EU anti-fraud agency Olaf has accused French right-wing populist Marine Le Pen and several of her confidants of embezzling around €600,000 during her time as an MEP. The French news portal “Mediapart” published excerpts from a new Olaf report on Saturday. Le Pen will face incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election next Sunday.
Le Pen’s lawyer denied the allegations. It was an “instrumentalization” so shortly before the runoff election, said Rodolphe Bosselut of the AFP news agency. Parts of the report are “facts more than ten years old”. Marine Le Pen was “not summoned by any French judicial authority,” he added. Neither he nor his client received the final report of the investigation launched in 2016. Marine Le Pen was questioned in writing in March 2021.
“Mediapart” published excerpts from the new Olaf report on spending by political groups in the European Parliament within the framework of their members’ mandates. According to this, Le Pen and others are said to have used the funds for national political purposes, personal expenses or for services from companies related to their party or faction.
Paris prosecutor is investigating allegations
Marine Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her ex-partner Louis Aliot and the former far-right MEP Bruno Gollnisch are said to have embezzled around 600,000 euros, which they were supposed to pay back. According to the report, Le Pen personally embezzled around €137,000 in public funds during her time as a Strasbourg MP between 2004 and 2017.
The Paris prosecutor confirmed to the AFP news agency that they received the report on March 11 and are currently examining it. Since June 2017, Marine Le Pen has also been under investigation on suspicion of having procured party members bogus employment as assistants in the European Parliament. She is accused of “misappropriation of public funds” and “complicity” as part of the judicial investigation.
Marine Le Pen is not the only politician from the former Front National (FN) party, now called the “Rassemblement National” (national collection movement), whom the EU Parliament has accused of bogus employment. Her father and Gollnisch, among others, are said to have done the same.