POLICE raided the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics today just over a year before the opening ceremony of the quadrennial sporting showpiece.

Raids were carried out at the headquarters of the committee, which is known as Cojo, and at the offices of Solideo, the body in charge of the Olympic construction sites.

Prosecutors (PNF) confirmed to AFP they had authorised the raids in connection with two ongoing investigations.

A PNF spokesman said the probes concerned “illegal conflict of interest, misuse of public funds and favouritism”.

The first investigation was launched in 2017 involving anti-corruption and financial crime investigators concerning a series of contracts signed off by “several powerful decision makers linked to the Games, notably the Cojo and their predecessors GIP 2024 (the bidding committee)”, said PNF.

The second investigation was opened in 2022 and allocated to the BRDE, the financial brigade of the Parisian police.

They are looking into suspicions of conflict of interest and favouritism. 

PNF acted after the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) raised red flags over several deals signed off by Cojo and Solideo.

A source close to the case said it involves “consultancy contracts” on “different topics”.

Another source told AFP one of the two investigations surrounded Edouard Donnelly, executive director of operations for Cojo and who is also a service provider for the Games via his company RNK.

Cojo and Solideo said they are “cooperating fully with the investigators in order to facilitate their investigation”.

‘Whiter than white’

The International Olympic Committee said it has taken note of the raids.

“We have been informed by Paris 2024 that they are cooperating fully with the authorities in this matter,” a spokesman said.

The French sports ministry declined to comment.

This is the first such raid on the organising committee’s headquarters.

Two reports by AFA in 2021 highlighted “risks affecting probity” and “conflicts of interests”, which it warned could impinge on the “whiter than white” image of the Games that the head of the organising committee, Tony Estanguet, wished for.

AFA inspectors said the procedure for purchases was “imprecise and incomplete” and emphasised there “exists sometimes potential situations of conflicts of interests which are not overseen correctly”.

The inspectors drew attention to criminal cases involving the past two Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

They sai the “risks to probity being observed are plentiful in the context of major sporting events”.

David Roizen, a French expert in public policy and sport, told AFP the raids would harm the Paris organisers’ image.

“In the eyes of the general public, these raids are catastrophic. (The organisers) have lost their credibility, especially in their duty to set a good example,” he said.

“It might turn out they have done nothing wrong, which I hope is the case for the prestige of the Olympics, but it is going to be a thorn in their side until the Olympics.” – AFP, June 20, 2023.