The RN candidate and her relatives, accused of having embezzled around 600,000 euros of public money, denounce a “rough editing”.
Marine Le Pen (RN) and her relatives are accused by the European anti-fraud office of having embezzled around 600,000 euros of European public money during their terms of office as MEPs, according to a new report revealed on Saturday by Mediapart and handed over to French justice. Asked by AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that it had received this report on March 11, which is currently being analyzed.
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“Rough editing», «stink ball“, or even attempted interference by the European Union: the relatives of Marine Le Pen were heard on Sunday to express themselves on these accusations, seven days before the second round of the presidential election.
“This is an office against which we have lodged a complaint twice“, and there will be “obviously a third complaint“, thus indicated the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, on the set of CNews-Europe 1-Les Échos. “The French will not be fooled by the attempts of the EU and European institutions (to) interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marine Le Pen“, he said again.
“I am amazed at the always strong timing about the revelation” and sound “instrumentalization”, reacted to AFP Me Rodolphe Bosselut, Marine Le Pen’s lawyer. It is also said ‘appalled at the way Olaf is acting (European anti-fraud office)without contradictory character” and on “old facts more than ten years old” for some people. Marine Le Pen “has not been summoned by any French judicial authority whatsoever”, he added, deploring also that neither he nor his client were recipients of the final report. According to him, Olaf’s investigation has been open since 2016 and Marine Le Pen was questioned by mail in March 2021.
Marine Le Pen would have personally embezzled 137,000 euros
Olaf’s new report, of which Mediapart publishes extracts, concerns the fees that political groups can use in the context of their mandate as MEPs and that Marine Le Pen and her relatives would have used for national political purposes, for personal expenses or for benefits for the benefit of commercial companies close to the National Rally and the far-right parliamentary group Europe des nations et des libertés (ENL). Olaf implicates Marine Le Pen, three other former MEPs – her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her former companion Louis Aliot and Bruno Gollnisch, member of the national office of the RN -, and the ENL.
The office accuses them of having embezzled around 600,000 euros, of which it recommends reimbursement. According to the report, the candidate of the National Rally would have personally embezzled around 137,000 euros of public money from the Parliament of Strasbourg when she was an MEP between 2004 and 2017.
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According to announcements made to AFP, the European Parliament is counting on its sideproceed with the recovery of sums unduly paidduring her tenure as MEP at Marine Le Pen. “Parliament seized Olaf after discovering part of the irregularities» reproached to the candidate and her relatives, explained an official. “In total, we are talking about 617,000 euros unduly paidand the institution willproceed in the coming weeks to recover from those concerned“.