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Police raided the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Tuesday, just over a year before the opening ceremony of the quadrennial sports exhibition.
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A source close to the investigation told AFP that the raids were carried out at the committee’s headquarters, known as Cojo, and the offices of Solideo, the agency responsible for the Olympic construction site.
The reason for the raid was not immediately clear, but Kojo said they were “cooperating fully with investigators to facilitate their investigation.”
It was the first such raid on the organizing committee headquarters.
Another source close to the investigation said the search of their residence was carried out by anti-corruption and financial crime investigators and the BRDE, the financial brigade of the Paris police.
Two reports by the French anti-corruption agency (AFA) two years ago highlighted “risks to integrity” and “conflicts of interest” and warned that this could affect what the organizing committee chief considers “whiter than white”. Olympic Image, Tony Estanguet, Hope.
AFA inspectors said the procurement process was “imprecise and incomplete” and highlighted that “at times there were potential conflicts of interest situations that were not properly monitored.”
The raid is the latest drama to impact French sport in the past year.
In May, Brigitte Henriques surprised many by resigning as president of the French National Olympic Committee.
Henriques’ departure led the IOC to issue a statement “calling on everyone to take responsibility so that the internal debate that has affected CNOSF over the past few months ceases.”
A successor has not yet been determined.
Several federations – football, rugby, gymnastics and tennis – have been embroiled in scandals.
The two high-profile resignations followed the resignation of Noël Le Graët, the octogenarian president of the French Football Federation, in February amid allegations of sexual and psychological harassment.
That was two months after France lost the World Cup final in Qatar.
Former sports minister and French rugby coach Bernard Laporte also resigned as president of the French rugby federation in January after he was found guilty of corruption – a short time before France hosted the men’s Rugby World Cup. There are several months.
The Paris Olympics will open on July 26, 2024 and run until August 11.
(AFP)