Searches were carried out on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of the consulting firm McKinsey and those of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party and the Renaissance financing association, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) said on Wednesday, confirming information from the Parisian. These searches were conducted by the investigating judges as part of two judicial inquiries opened in October.
One of them concerns the intervention of consulting firms in Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 and 2022 election campaigns, and the other on the more general use of these consulting firms by the state, according to sources. close to the file.
“It is normal for justice to investigate freely and independently”
“McKinsey confirms the holding on December 13 of visit operations carried out by an investigating judge at the headquarters of McKinsey France in Paris”, indicated the consulting firm in a press release, ensuring “to fully collaborate with the public authorities, as always has been.” “In its press release of November 24, the PNF indicated that it had opened a judicial investigation into the conditions for the intervention of consulting firms in the electoral campaigns of 2017 and 2022, following complaints from elected officials and associations”, for his part reacted to AFP the spokesperson for Renaissance, Loïc Signor.
“It is normal for the judiciary to investigate freely and independently to shed light on this issue,” he added, adding that the party was at the disposal of the judges “to provide them with any useful information on the campaigns. mentioned during their investigations”.
Controversies over the use of public funds to benefit firms
During the last presidential campaign, a Senate report had sparked heated controversy over the use of public funds for the benefit of these firms and the opposition had called for an investigation into the possible favoritism which McKinsey would have benefited from the majority. macronist. The report also pointed to a possible tax arrangement for McKinsey’s French entities, which would have allowed them to pay no corporate tax between 2011 and 2020.
On March 31, the PNF had opened a preliminary investigation for aggravated money laundering of aggravated tax evasion to verify the merits of these latest accusations. As part of this investigation, a search had already been carried out at the French headquarters of the firm on May 24. Then on October 20 and 21, the PNF entrusted investigating magistrates with a judicial investigation for non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts and reduction of accounting elements in a campaign account, and another for favoritism and concealment of favoritism.