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 next Sunday in the second round of the presidential election.
Le Pen’s lawyer denied the allegations. It was an “instrumentalization” so close to the second round, said Rodolphe Bosselut of AFP news agency. Parts of the report are “facts more than ten years old”. Marine Le Pen has “not been summoned by any French court,” he added. Neither he nor his client have received the final report of the investigation launched in 2016. Marine Le Pen was questioned in writing in March 2021.
Le Pen would also have used EU funds for personal expenses
“Mediapart” published extracts from the new OLAF report on the expenditure of political groups in the European Parliament under the mandate of their Members. According to this, Le Pen and others would have used the money for national political purposes, personal expenses or for services of companies associated with their party or faction.
Marine Le Pen, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her ex-partner Louis Aliot and former far-right MEP Bruno Gollnisch are said to have embezzled around €600,000, which they would repay. According to the report, Le Pen personally embezzled about €137,000 in public funds during her time as an MP in Strasbourg between 2004 and 2017.
Party members also gave a mock assignment?
The Paris prosecutor confirmed to the AFP news agency that they received the report on March 11 and are currently investigating it. Since June 2017, Marine Le Pen has also been under investigation on suspicion of obtaining sham work from party members as aides in the European Parliament. She is charged with “misappropriation of public funds” and “complicity” in the context of the judicial investigation.
Marine Le Pen is not the only politician from the former National Front (FN) party, now called Rassemblement National, who has been accused by the EU parliament of fake employment. Her father and Gollnisch, among others, would have done the same.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
