“Scam”, “false”, “breach of trust”, “embezzlement of public funds”.
Here is the list of offenses likely to be charged against Marine Le Pen and three other former FN MEPs, including her father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
A Mediapart investigation published this Saturday reveals that a report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) implicating the presidential candidate was submitted to French justice on March 11.
Currently "under analysis" by the Paris prosecutor's office according to Mediapart, this report accuses the far-right candidate of having embezzled nearly 136,993.99 euros of public money from the Strasbourg parliament when she served there as an MP between 2004 and 2017.
In addition to the qualified candidate in the second round of the presidential election, the text labeled "sensitive", pinpoints her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, her former companion Louis Aliot and Bruno Gollnisch, member of the national office of the National Rally, as well as the group far-right parliamentarian Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENL).
The total amount of the sums claimed would amount to exactly 617,379.77 euros.
In its report, Olaf indicates that the facts brought to light
“are liable to give rise to criminal proceedings against former Members (…) for the fraudulent acts they have committed to the detriment of the Union budget”.
Uplifting episode
Mediapart, which read the 116-page long report, recounts an edifying episode: in 2010, Marine Le Pen allegedly requested the reimbursement of nearly 5,000 euros in hotel and travel expenses for thirteen frontist activists participating in a meeting entitled “The regions and Europe faced with the financial crisis” organized by the National Front.
But in a letter addressed to the Parliament, one of the participants affirmed that it was in reality a question of preparing the internal election for the presidency of the FN.
In order to obtain the reimbursement, the one who was at the time an MEP, would have hung a European flag on the wall and sent photos to the Parliament of Strasbourg, according to this source.
Once the photos were taken, she allegedly pointed to the flag and said, “Put that shit away.
A story contested by Marine Le Pen who felt that this witness probably wanted to "take revenge" by sending this letter.
Marine Le Pen's lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, responded to Mediapart journalists, pointing to the "coincidence" of the publication of the investigation with "the campaign for the second round of the presidential elections", affirming that his client does not has never had access to the Olaf report and questioning the independence of this body dependent on the European Union.
As a reminder, Marine Le Pen has already been indicted since 2018 for embezzlement of 339,000 euros of public funds in the case of her European parliamentary assistants.
She is indeed suspected of having made MEPs work, normally in the exclusive service of the Strasbourg parliament, on behalf of the National Rally.
Campaigning during the 2017 presidential election, Marine Le Pen refused to respond to investigators who were trying to shed light on this case denouncing "an instrumentalization of justice".
