© Copyright – 2023 – Athletics Illustrated
Concerned about the embezzlement of public funds, French anti-corruption police have raided the 2024 Paris Olympic headquarters.
Apparently, the raid was happening at press time Tuesday at several locations.
According to the Evening Standard, the search was underway at the headquarters of the Games organisers (COJOP) and of SOLIDEO, the public body responsible for building projects linked to the event.
French police raid Paris 2024 Olympics headquarters https://t.co/5ZyfeOkuMv
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 20, 2023
COJOP was opened in 2017 and was entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption, Financial and Tax Offences with charges of “illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds, favouritism and concealment of favouritism,” targeting several contracts awarded in particular by COJOP.
SOLIDEO was opened in 2022 and was entrusted to the financial brigade of the Parisian police (BRDE), with charges of “illegal taking of interests, favouritism and concealment of favouritism relating to several contracts awarded by COJOP and SOLIDEO.”
The French do not want what happened in Tokyo leading up to the 2021 Games to happen in Paris — historically, the Olympics are rife with corruption.
Tokyo 2020
Before the Games, Kadokawa Group was chosen as an Olympic sponsor and published the Games program and guidebooks.
Takahashi Haruyuki a former executive at the Japanese advertising company Dentsu, played a crucial role in 2013 in landing the Olympics for Tokyo and became the Tokyo Games marketing arm.
Tsuguhiko Kadokawa “seriously betrayed public trust,” company president Takeshi Natsuno said.
Kadokawa, the son of the founder, was arrested in September on suspicion of bribing Takahashi, a member of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, with 69 million yen ($715,600).
Rio 2016
Carlos Arthur Nuzman was found guilty after a trial that featured claims of rigged votes, gold bars and at least $2 million in payoffs to top sports officials. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribery.
Nuzman a former long-running head of Brazil’s Olympic committee and once an important figure in the International Olympic Committee, was arrested four years after a joint investigation into corruption by investigators from both Brazil and France.
The London Games in 2012 — as all Games seem to be — were full of corruption. A book was published illustrating the deep criminality of the 2012 London Olympic Games: Legacy—Gangsters, Criminals and the London Olympics by Michael Gillard.
The awarding of the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships was considered dirty too, as an arrest warrant, charges and conviction were brought against Papa Massata Diack who was in charge of marketing. He allegedly bribed the organisers twice. Diack remains free in Senegal as France, where he was charged does not have an extradition policy with the African nation. However, his father was jailed for some time for bribery, and several other corruption-related charges.
