Etienne Thobois and Edouard Donnelly, two senior officials of the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Olympic Games (Cojo) in Paris, were searched on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), AFP learned on Friday from judicial source.
Confirming information from France TV, this source indicated that these operations were carried out as part of the 2017 preliminary investigation opened by the PNF.
Entrusts the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (Oclciff), this investigation concerns a series of contracts awarded in particular by the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Olympic Games and the GIP 2024 (the candidacy committee which preceded the Cojo, Ed), said the public minister on Tuesday. The targeted offenses are illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public fundsfavoritism and concealment of favouritism.
After having been providers of the Olympic Games, MM. Thobois and Donnelly became the COJO’s first chief executive in early 2018 and the COJO’s second executive director of operations last November, sparking suspicions of conflicts of interest.
Suspicion of conflicts of interest
In the 2022 activity report of which AFP was aware, the Cojo ethics committee recalls having issued a favorable opinion on the recruitment of Mr. Donnelly subject to the strict observance of measures likely to prevent him from may intervene or carry out any action in connection with the conflict of interest situation in which he would be with the company RNK, a company which according to a source close to the file is not targeted by the investigation.
The ethics committee has largely removed any risk of conflict of this type with Keneo, a consulting firm specializing in sports targeted by a search on Wednesday as part of the same investigation and which was co-founded by MM. Thobois and Donnelly.
In addition to Keneo, other searches were carried out on Tuesday in this investigation and in another opened in 2022 and also relating to the contracts passed within the framework of the Olympic Games, targeting the Cojo and the Olympic Works Delivery Company (Solideo).
The current CEO of Keneo Vincent de Bary told AFP on Wednesday that the search concerned the activities of (the company) before 2020 and his arrival at the head of the consulting firm. Interviewed in recent days, MM. Thobois and Donnelly did not respond to AFP.