Marine Le Pen targeted by a European anti-fraud report – Archyde

Marine Le Pen and her relatives are once again suspected of having embezzled money from the European Parliament as part of their mandate as MEPs. According to a report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), revealed by the Mediapart site on Saturday April 16, “the financial impact of the facts found amounts to at least 617,379.77 euros”. The file was sent to the Paris prosecutor’s office on March 11 and to the European Parliament, which, for its part, could request the recovery of these sums. The candidate of the National Rally (RN) in the presidential election is accused of having misused 136,993.99 euros of community money when she was a European deputy, between 2004 and 2017. Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, would have embezzled 303,545.76 euros. The report also quotes Bruno Gollnisch for 43,257 euros, the far-right political group Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENL) for 131,089 euros and the former companion of Marine Le Pen, Louis Aliot, for 2,493.22 euros. . Read also Article reserved for our subscribers The National Rally of Marine Le Pen again before the courts The facts brought to light “are likely to give rise to criminal proceedings against the former deputies (…) for the fraudulent acts they have committed to the detriment of the Union’s budget”, judges OLAF, which speaks of “fraud”, “forgery”, “breach of trust”, “misappropriation of public funds” for the purposes of national policy or personal costs, overbilling, even “fictitious” services, for the benefit of companies often gravitating in the frontist nebula, or even “conflicts of interest”. 129 bottles of wine and champagne The examples are legion. Thus, the European Parliament reimbursed 23,100 euros worth of promotional items (bags, pens and other key rings) which were delivered to the party’s headquarters and, notes OLAF, which “seem to have been purchased for the FN in Lyon” in 2014. That same year, Marine Le Pen and her father each presented the Community Legislative Assembly with a bill for 5,000 euros supposed to concern the creation of a website in their name. Which “have never been created”, says OLAF. The report also mentions these “requests for personal reimbursement” from Jean-Marie Le Pen, who, on December 28, 2016, a few days before New Year’s Eve, ordered 129 bottles of wine and champagne for more than 8,500 euros and presented the invoice to the Strasbourg institution. However, 113 of these bottles were delivered to his mansion in Montretout (Hauts-de-Seine), where the founder of the National Front (FN) has his offices. He did not send “any evidence that this order had any connection with his activities in the European Parliament”, notes OLAF. You have 49.56% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.