French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is suspected of embezzling money from the European Parliament in her capacity as an MEP.
According to a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) revealed by the website Mediapart on Saturday 16 April, “the financial impact of the facts established amounts to at least €617,379.77 in total”. The case was referred to the Paris public prosecutor’s office on 11 March, as well as to the European Parliament, which is requesting that these sums are repaid.
The Rassemblement National (RN) candidate is accused of illegally using €136,993.99 of EU money when she was an MEP between 2004 and 2017. Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is said to have embezzled €303,545.76. The report also cites Bruno Gollnisch (€43,257) and the far-right political group Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) for €131,089.
The facts uncovered “are likely to give rise to criminal proceedings against the former MEPs (...) for the fraudulent acts they committed to the detriment of the Union’s budget”, says OLAF, which speaks of “fraud”, “forgery”, “breach of trust”, “misappropriation of public funds” for national or personal political purposes, over-invoicing, as well as “fictitious” services and “conflicts of interest”.
Marine Le Pen has already been under investigation for “misuse of [EU] public funds” since 2018 in another case regarding European parliamentary assistants (see EUROPE 11727/19).
She is suspected, as are other former FN MEPs, of having had employees paid by the European Parliament work for her party. The European Parliament is demanding €339,000 from her for this. In total, in the case regarding parliamentary assistants, the European Parliament has already recovered almost €800,000 from former MEPs. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)